Maquina Hamlet (Hamlet Machine)

Alternative title: Hamlet / Maschine
Synopsis: A video recording of the avant garde work by Heiner Muller performed by the Argentinian company El Periferico de Objetos. Bruce Weber, reviewing the production for The New York Times, writes ‘the script is a mere eight pages contrived from disjointed literary citations and harshly poetic declamations. It divides itself into five scenes in which Hamlet (and a handful of alter egos, one of which is an actor playing Hamlet) and Ophelia are situated in modern circumstances rife with political and sexual violence...the scenes, macabre, surreal and often shocking in their brutality, alluding to repressive politics in Argentina and elsewhere’. The lines are delivered in voice-over (in Spanish with English supertitles). The play incorporates masks and mannequins. The translation is by Gabriela Massuh and Dieter Welke; English titles based on a translation by Carl Weber.
Language: Spanish (Argentina)
Country: United States
Medium: Video
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Recording date: 21 Oct 2000
Duration: 68 mins