The UNC Charlotte Department of Theatre will present “Hamletmachine” Friday, March 18, through Tuesday, March 22, in the Anne Belk Theater of the Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts.
German playwright Heiner Müller wrote “Hamletmachine” in 1977 after completing a translation of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. Considered a leading example of postmodern theatre, it has been called “a powerful and enduring creation” by the New York Times. The play does not follow a standard plot but presents a series of monologues that dispel, according to the playwright, “the illusion that one can stay innocent in this our world.”
Müller, who died in 1995, is considered Germany’s greatest dramatist since Bertolt Brecht and wrote nearly 30 stage works. Although virtually unknown in the United States, in Europe he is among the most performed 20th-century playwrights.
The playwright’s deconstruction of “Hamlet” was inspired by his severe disappointment in the failure of communism in East Germany (Müller lived in East Berlin), and his despair over the division of Germany following World War II – a country “cleft in twain,” like Gertrude’s (Hamlet’s mother’s) heart. The renowned experimental theatre director Robert Wilson mounted the widely acclaimed English-language premiere of the play in 1986 at New York University.
In conjunction with its production of “Hamlet” this past fall, the Theatre Department decided to present “Hamletmachine” as part of a year-long celebration of Shakespeare, who died 400 years ago. The production is directed by Robin Witt, assistant professor of theatre, and includes 27 student actors. While “Hamletmachine,” like “Hamlet,” comprises five acts, it is just 50 minutes long.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m., March 18-19 and March 21-22, with a 2 p.m. matinee on March 20. Tickets are $18 for general admission; $12 for UNC Charlotte faculty, staff and alumni; $10 for seniors; and $8 for students. Purchase tickets online or by calling 704-687-1849.
Caroline Weist, a visiting professor at Davidson College, will facilitate a “talkback” after the performance on Saturday, March 19. Weist is a theater and performance studies scholar. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014 for her dissertation on the entangled concepts of prosthesis and “Heimat” (home) in 20-century German theater. Her primary research interest is in performance studies, specifically in the interactions between theatrical performance and disability, gender and queer theory. She has published on plays by Brecht and Georg Kaiser. Informed by her experience as managing director of a German-American theater troupe, her current book project explores how theater illuminates the complex and contradictory history of the term Volkskörper (the body of the people) in 20th-century German culture.