“This time is out of joint: O cursed spite, hat ever I was born to set it right”. These are the words Hamlet uses to open the first path to the heart of the story and in the depths of which he will be thrown. They are the signs of the first awakening.Act I. Scene 5. The seventh edition of the Shakespeare International Theatre Festival, which takes place in Craiova between April 23rd and May 3rd and in Bucharest, and between April 24th and May 9th, holds Hamlet’s words as a motto.
Nonetheless it is an edition dedicated to the Danish prince and it is called „The Hamlet Constellation”.
Organized every two years by the Marin Sorescu National Theatre in Craiova, in collaboration with the Bucharest Cultural Projects Center, ArCuB and the William Shakespeare Foundation, the Festival brings you this year Hamlet montages from all over the world.
The 2010 edition has been reflected upon more than ten years ago and it is a singular project in the international theatrical landscape. On the evening of April 23rd – as usual, the festival opens on Shakespeare’s birthday – Oskaras Korsunovas’ montage, from the Municipal Theatre in Vilnius (Lithuania), will be presented in Craiova. “We have to shatter the calm that’s surrounding us, we have to understand and then learn again that it is only an illusion. That is why Hamlet is one of the plays which match our world the best. Hamlet’s questions seem absurd in the beginning. Our existence is so quiet, so comfortable, and our future almost looks pink. But the future has to be discovered in ourselves, and not in the political slogans and advertisements. We have to rip the veil which separates us from life, to make the wound of our so-called quiet existence bleed. Our safety can be terribly dangerous.” It’s Korsunovas’ testimony about the show set up in Vilnius.
Montages with the world’s most loved play will follow up to the last day of the festival. There is the Polski Theatre in Wroclaw (Poland), Hamlet under the direction of Monika Pecikiewici and Compania „Cia des Atores” from Rio de Janeiro, under Enrique Diaz’ direction.
The Japanese montage to the famous Shakespearean play signed Yoshihiro Kurita is added and the Wooster Group (from New York) on the same text, then the Rideau’s theatre from Bruxelles Hamlet under the direction of Frederica Dussenne.
Yoshihiro Kurita proposes the scene as a meeting place between Shakespeare and No Theatre. He declared in an interview: “The No Theatre doesn’t allow decors on stage. It is what could be called „nude theatre”, where you only have words, they are the only instruments allowed when you try to create a world of images. In other words, the No theatre is a space of visuals and I think that is perfect for Shakespeare. My desire was that this marriage between Shakespeare’s plays and the world of No theatre create a new „being”, which cannot live outside our stage. What I wanted to do was pour some sort of western „consomme” in a Japanese bowl, but, by using the same ingredients, to create a new type which will be neither traditionally Japanese nor „a western consomme”. We are waiting for his Hamlet!
Street Theatre Group from Seoul, The „A.P. Cekhov” Art Theatre in Moscow (under Iuri Butusov’s direction) and the Factory Theatre from London are also companies who will come in April to Bucharest and Craiova.
The „Hamlet – A monologue” event-presentation will also be in Craiova, where the director Robert Wilson will be present. He should have done a montage of Hamlet in Romania, but the project has been postponed due to the economic crisis…
Three productions from Romania are invited to the Shakespeare Festival: Laszlo Bocsardy’s Hamlet from Metropolis Theatre, Alexandru Dabija’s Pyramus & Thisbe 4 You from Odeon Theatre and Alexandru Nica’s Hamlet from the Radu Stanca National Theatre in Sibiu.
Translated by Iulia Vieru, MTTLC, 2nd year
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