By The Wooster Group.
The Wooster's "Hamlet" is an archaeological excursion into America's cultural past, looking for archetypes that shadow forth our identity. The group has been drawn to Richard Burton's Hamlet, a 1964 Broadway production which was recorded in live performance from 17 camera angles and edited into a film that was shown for only two days in 2000 movie houses across the US. The idea of bringing a live theater experience to thousands of simultaneous viewers in different cities was trumpeted as a new form called “Theatrofilm”, made possible through “the miracle of Electronovision.” The Wooster Group's "Hamlet" attempts to reverse the process, reconstructing a hypothetical theater piece from the fragmentary evidence of the edited film, like an archeologist inferring an improbable temple from a collection of ruins. Channeling the ghost of the legendary 1964 performance, the Group descends into a kind of madness, intentionally replacing its own spirit with the spirit of another.
Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, "Hamlet" features performances by Roy Faudree, Ari Fliakos, Daniel Pettrow, Scott Shepherd, Casey Spooner, Kate Valk and Judson Williams. The set is by Ruud van den Akker; lighting by Jennifer Tipton and Gabe Maxson; sound by Geoff Abbas, Dan Dobson, Matt Schloss, Matt Tierney and Joby Emmons with additional sound by John Collins, Jim Dawson and Warren Fischer; and video by Reid Farrington with Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck and Zbigniew Bzymek. Other contributing artists include Ariella Bowden (props); Teresa Hartmann (assistant to the director); Claudia Hill (costumes); Bozkurt Karasu (production management); Felix Ivanov (fight coach); and Natalie Thomas (movement coach).