A new era at the Danish court. After the King’s death, his brother Claudius married his widow Gertrud and seized power to prevent the looming Norwegian invasion. Only young Prince Hamlet is not happy about his mother’s new marriage. He despises the quick wedding as much as the impending outbreak of war, which has ruined his plans to study. His grief for his father is all-embracing. And then one night, his father’s ghost appears to Hamlet. The spirit accuses his own brother of having poisoned him in his sleep. Prince Hamlet contrives a plan to verify the accusation made by his father’s ghost.
The unusual combination of violence and self-examination in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is unique. Director Lisa Nielebock explores the play’s existential bewilderment with great empathy while unfolding an overwhelming cosmos informed by doubt, disgust and unwillingness to act, but also raises the question of the right time for action. Is it necessary to fulfil the missions set by father and fatherland? At any price? What reward does one hope for in exchange for keeping a promise? And how is it possible that a sense of doubt that may in fact be resistance turns into devastation?
Lisa Nielebock has been head professor for directing at the University of the Arts in Essen. Her most recent production in Hanover was Der zerbrochne Krug.