Hamlet

A directing internship on the production of Hamlet (William Shakespeare), directed by Burkhard C. Kosminski, during a professional placement abroad at the Staatstheater Stuttgart (Erasmus+ programme).

Burkhard C. Kosminski has been artistic director of Schauspiel Stuttgart since 2018, having previously served as artistic director of the Nationaltheater Mannheim from 2013 to 2018. He initiated the European Dramatists’ Prize, endowed with 75,000 euros.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. The old king has recently died - said to have been bitten by a snake while sleeping in the garden. He leaves behind a country in growing conflict with its Norwegian neighbour, a widow who marries her brother-in-law, and, in the midst of it all, his son, young Prince Hamlet. News of his father’s death tears him away from his studies in Wittenberg and brings him back to his home court in Helsingør. There he learns that the ghost of the late king appears on the castle ramparts every night, and he sets out to find him to learn the true circumstances of his death. The ghost, who was treacherously murdered by his brother and successor to the throne, Claudius - Hamlet’s stepfather - calls on his son for revenge. Inwardly torn, Hamlet decides from then on to feign madness to avoid arousing the suspicion of his family and the court. Polonius, confidant of the new King Claudius, initially assumes that the cause of Hamlet’s madness is love for his daughter, Ophelia. While Hamlet tries with all his strength to prove his stepfather’s guilt, the royal couple attempt to catch the prince out. In this struggle between revelation and concealment, events tumble one after another and the characters become gradually entangled in a deadly web of intrigue.

The production takes a modern look at the classic work Hamlet, focusing on the theme of war as an ever-recurring colossus for humanity. As long as the desire for power exists, history is always forced to repeat itself.