Hamlet

// INVITED TO THE 2020 BERLINER THEATERTREFFEN

King Hamlet is dead. He leaves his wife Gertrud and his son Hamlet behind, whom he haunts as a ghost. He lets him know that he has been poisoned by his brother Claudius and calls on young Hamlet to remember him and avenge him. From now on he has to live with his father’s order and with the doubts about the sincerity of his courtly environment. What are his uncle, who took over the regiment in Denmark from his father, and his mother, who married her former brother-in-law, pretending? Hamlet struggles to fit into the new order. He cannot and will To be, or not to be. not leave the royal court, as Laertes, the brother of his girlfriend Ophelia, does.

Hamlet wants to force his uncle to clarification, but he has other concerns about Denmark’s explosive political situation. Hamlet’s childhood friends Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are to spy on him and find out what disturbs him. Polonius, the royal advisor, also tries to get to the bottom of Hamlet’s condition. He uses his daughter Ophelia. Hamlet, in turn, confronts the court with his mendacity. Nevertheless, he hesitates to put his father’s vendetta into practice. There is an argument between him and his mother, in which he kills the listening Polonius. Hamlet is then sent to England by Claudius, where he is to be killed. However, he sees through the murder plan and manages to turn the tables and have his former friends executed. He returns to Denmark and meets two gravediggers. They dig a grave for Ophelia, who drowned in the river. Laertes has also returned home. Spurred on by Claudius, he challenges Hamlet to a duel to retaliate for the death of his father and Ophelia. Although he shows understanding for Hamlet’s position, he fights with a poisoned sword tip. In addition, Claudius has provided poisoned wine that is accidentally drunk by Gertrud. In the duel Laertes, Claudius and finally Hamlet perish. On his way back from Poland the Norwegian Prince Fortinbras stops at the sight of the dead. He has come to demand old rights and becomes the new ruler.


For her performance as Hamlet in Johan Simons’ production, Sandra Hüller received the Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring in 2019 and was voted Actor of the Year by the critics’ survey of the magazine Theater heute.