THEATRE: HAMLET
The dirt on the stage was shipped in especially. Blood-brown and heavy with centuries of death, it carries with it the physical weight of a continent’s history, as well as grounding into reality a Shakespearean classic oft-quoted, little lived. This production of Hamlet hails from the German theatre company that War of the Roses director Benedict Andrews stabled with, Berlin’s Schaubuehne, and shares some of the dark yet exquisite brutality of that retelling. Led by Lars Eidinger as Hamlet, six actors breathe life into the 30 characters of the Danish royal court, one riddled with treachery, incest and murder. The stage is lit up spectrally, and slides smoothly back and forth over the dirt. Against a shimmery metal curtain are video grabs from the action as it unfolds – Eidinger as ringleader, a master of mayhem, one moment bug-eyed and swallowing fistfuls of earth, another lasciviously prancing in his mother’s likeness. He even turns the camera on the audience – we, too, are complicit in the spiralling insanity. Bursts of gunfire, modern expletives and throbbing grindcore bring the aesthetics into the 21st century, blended seamlessly with the Shakespearean flourishes thanks to director Thomas Ostermeier’s light tough. It feels so fresh, so cantankerously full of life, you might almost believe this had been written and wrought into this world only yesterday, golem-like from the dirt beneath Hamlet’s feet. As they say in the Sydney Festival program – if you think you’ve seen Hamlet, think again.
Until Jan 16, Sydney Theatre, Walsh Bay, $69-99 (or try Tix for Next to Nix, $25 when bought on the day), 9250 1999 or sydneyfestival.org.au
