Overview
The play is constituted of scenes. The whole text is roughly nine pages long. The script itself is extremely dense and open to interpretation; recurring themes include feminism and the ecology movement. The play remains Müller's most-often performed and (arguably) his best-known today; Müller himself directed a seven-and-a-half-hour performance of ''Hamlet'' (in which ''Die Hamletmaschine'' was the play-within-a-play) in Berlin in 1990.Performance history
''Hamletmachine'' had its world premiere in 1979 at ''Théâtre Gérard Philipe'' in Saint-Denis, France. The U.S. premiere of the play was performed in March 1984 by ''Freies Theater München'' at the University of South Florida. This was followed in December of the same year by a production at the ''Theater for the New City'' in New York and in May 1986 by a production at New York University, which was directed by Robert Wilson. The British premiere was on March 7, 1985 at the Gate Theatre in London, in a double bill with Heiner Müller's ''Mauser'', both directed by Paul Brightwell, who had previously directed a student production of Müller's ''Cement'' at the University of Essex. The production of ''Hamletmachine'' was described as "a stage teeming with images" and "an electrifying message from East Germany" by Nicholas De Jongh in '' The Guardian''. In 1992, the play was presented by the University of California, Irvine, directed by Keith Fowler, as a bloody fantasy set in a "Frankenstein laboratory," in which industrial meat hooks served to "float" Ophelia. In 2002, the '' Los Angeles Times'' published a 35-year retrospective of cutting edge art "on the wilder side," and UC Irvine's ''Hamletmachine'' was one of five "bloodiest" events listed. In 1992 Josef Szeiler and Aziza Haas elaborated the Hamletmachine in Tokyo in parallel to a production of ''Hamlet'' by the Tokyo Engeki Ensemble, known for its traditional Brecht adaptations, which was confronted with the open and experimental approach Szeiler and Haas had first developed as members of TheaterAngelusNovus. The project resulted in a new translation of ''Hamletmachine'' into Japanese and 15 experimental performances ranging from 45 minutes to 12 hours. It was documented in the book ''HamletMaschine.Tokyo.Material''. In 2007 it was performed in the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, directed by Paul Carton. In 2010, Wang Chong directed the first production of ''Hamletmachine'' in China. References to the Chinese and North Korean political situations caused controversy. However, the show toured Beijing and Hangzhou without getting banned. The show was performed by four Chinese opera actors and one child. Critics called it "deconstructed Chinese opera" and "the most exciting work at the Beijing International Fringe Festival". In 2016 Vitalyi Goltsov directed the first production of ''Hamletmachine'' in Ukraine. It was in Chernihiv Teatre of puppets. In 2020 director Roza Sarkisyan and writer Joanna Wichowska collaborated on a new production entitled ''H-Effect'', which combined this play and Hamlet in a postdramatic theatre production.Adaptations
''Hamletmachine'' has had various adaptations in other media: * ''Hamletmachine'', a radio drama, including music by Einstürzende Neubauten, which was released as a compact disc in 1991.Works influenced by Hamletmachine
In 2013, Citi Garage Theatre in Santa Monica, CA premiered ''Recordings
* ''Die Hamletmaschine'' (withReferences
External links