Hamlet

SUN May 16 6:00 pm Moravian Theatre

William Shakespeare
HAMLET
Divadlo Husa na provázku Brno / CZ

music, music supervision, directed by Jan Mikulášek
translation Zdeněk Urbánek
stage design, costumes Marek Cpin
dramatic adviser Barbara Vrbová
premiere January 17, 2009

characters and cast
Hamlet Jiří Vyorálek
Ophelia Anežka Kubátová / Gabriela Štefanová
Claudius Pavel Zatloukal
Gertrude Ivana Hloužková
Polonius Vladimír Hauser
Laertes Robert Mikluš
Horatio Tomáš Sýkora
Rosencrantz Michal Dalecký
Guildernstern Jiří Hajdyla
The Players Andrea Buršová, Michal Bumbálek, Anežka Kubátová / Gabriela Štefanová


“I regard Hamlet as an informal character as he is no intellectual hero who could cope with anything.”


Jiří Vyorálek's Hamlet is no pensive agoniser, but a properly angry young man, who, like Electra, longs for nothing else than revenge for the murder of his father. Hamlet's outbursts of anger are truly frightening, for example when he brutally drags Ophelia across a stage covered in dirt. Unable to get to her feet, she merely beats the ground in despair. Mikulášek's production is rich in details and “demythicising” shifts: Ophelia is not a charming young girl, but more of a pubescent brat who clearly finds it difficult to communicate with adults. Her pure heart is, however, demonstrated in poetic metaphor in a sequence where she plays the violin using a lily as a bow. (…)This Hamlet is the event of the theatre season. Not only in Brno.



The well-known story is rigorously translated into the present through everyday costumes, the actors' matter-of-fact or ironic and affected intonations and gestures, their photo groups, the screen on stage and other things. This is not the present of the “big world,” but the present of disintegrating family relationships. (…)
The most essential medium of Mikulášek's Hamlet is not so much Urbánek's soberly matter-of-fact, depoetising translation, but above all the theatre language.


Jan Mikulášek (b. 1978, Zlín, Czechoslovakia)
After an unfinished course in direction at JAMU Brno, he became the artistic head of the Brno children's theatre Polárka, where he created a progressive theatre over the course of three years. From 2005 to 2007, he was the artistic head of the Petr Bezruč Theatre. There he made a number of successful productions: 2005: Story (Crimp), 2006: Three Sisters (Chekhov), Wild at Heart, 2007: Four Murders Are Enough, Darling. He continues to work with the company as a guest director – 2007: Eugene Onegin, 2008: Cosi (Nowra), 2009: 1984 (Orwell), The Wild Duck (Ibsen). He also works regularly with the National Theatre of Moravian Silesia – 2003: Caligula (Camus), 2004: Hercules in the Augean Stables (Dürrenmatt), 2005: Queen Margot (Dumas), 2006: La Dolce Vita (Fellini), 2007: Phantom of Morrisville, 2008: Heda Gabler (Ibsen), 2009: Oedipus the King (Sophocles) – and with other Moravian theatres (the National Theatre in Brno – 2004: The Mouse-trap (Christie), 2007: Blood Wedding (Lorca), 2010: The Elementary Particles, Zlín City Theatre – 2008: Chaplin in the Lights of Modern Times, Husa na provázku – 2009: Hamlet, and others).
His directions have been winning critical and audience acclaim, chiefly thanks to highly stylized acting, grotesque overstatement and excellent work with visual and music elements. In his directorial style, he reveals inspiration by the world of cinema and film narration. Besides directing, Mikulášek also composes stage music and has made music for over twenty productions. During his studies, he started to work with set designer Marek Cpin, with whom he continues to form a unique creative partnership.
In 2008, the Flora Theatre Festival hosted his adaptation of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin and in 2009 he visited the event with his version of George Orwell's 1984 (both Petr Bezruč Theatre, Ostrava).