Hamletmachine

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;{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}}

Hamletmachine had its world premiere in 1979 at Théâtre Gérard Philipe in Saint-Denis, France.{{cite web|url=http://www.theatregerardphilipe.com/cdn/historique |title=Théâtre Gérard Philipe, Historique |publisher=theatregerardphilipe.com |access-date=2017-12-29}} The U.S. premiere of the play was performed in March 1984 by Freies Theater München at the University of South Florida.{{cite web|url=http://www.freies-theater-muenchen.de/files/uploads/FTM%2070-12.pdf |title=Freies Theater München, Produktionen 1970 bis 2010 |publisher=freies-theater-muenchen.de |access-date=2017-12-29}} This was followed in December of the same year by a production at the Theater for the New City in New York{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/22/arts/stage-hamletmachine-in-american-premiere.html |title=Stage: 'Hamletmachine' In American Premiere |work=The New York Times |date=1984-12-22 |access-date=2017-12-29}} and in May 1986 by a production at New York University, which was directed by Robert Wilson.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/25/theater/stage-view-cranking-up-a-powerful-hamletmachine.html |title=Stage: Cranking Up A Powerful 'Hamletmachine' |work=The New York Times |date=1986-05-25 |access-date=2017-12-29}}

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.Friedman, Dan, ed., Mueller in America,, "Who is He Supposed to Be?", pub. Castillo Cultural Center, 2003.

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.Aziza Hass (ed.): HamletMachine.Tokyo.Material. Eine Theaterarbeit von Josef Szeiler und Aziza Haas in Japan. Berlin 1996. {{ISBN|3-923854-86-2}}

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.{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} However, the show toured Beijing and Hangzhou without getting banned.{{cite web|url=http://www.jingdesign.cn/theatrere/hamletmachine.html|title=薪传实验剧团|publisher=Jingdesign.cn|access-date=2012-02-20|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313192528/http://www.jingdesign.cn/theatrere/hamletmachine.html|archive-date=2012-03-13}}{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} 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".{{cite web |url=http://www.jingdesign.cn/theatrere/press/20101006.html |title=薪传实验剧团 |publisher=Jingdesign.cn |date=2010-10-06 |access-date=2012-02-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313192839/http://www.jingdesign.cn/theatrere/press/20101006.html |archive-date=2012-03-13 }}

In 2016 Vitalyi Goltsov directed the first production of Hamletmachine in Ukraine. It was in Chernihiv Teatre of puppets.{{cite web|last=Щукіна|first=Юлія|title=Трагіфарс доби глобалізації|url=https://day.kyiv.ua/uk/article/kultura/tragifars-doby-globalizaciyi|work=До свого 40-го сезону Чернігівський театр ляльок ім. О. Довженка представив глядачам прем’єру — «Гамлет-машина»|publisher=День|access-date=20 February 2018}} 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.{{Cite web|title=Кіборг з Тернопольщини зіграв в міжнародній виставі "H-Effect" про війну в Україні|url=https://www.tenews.org.ua//post/show/1603347236-kiborg-z-ternopolschini-zigrav-v-mizhnarodniy-vistavi--h-effect--pro-viynu-v-ukraini|access-date=2021-03-05|website=TeNews|language=en}}

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. Blixa Bargeld played the part of Prince Hamlet and Gudrun Gut played Ophelia.
• Die Hamletmaschine-Oratorio, an oratorio by composer Georges Aperghis
• Die Hamletmaschine, a 1987 opera by Wolfgang Rihm
• Szenische Kammermusik nach Heiner Müllers “Hamletmaschine”, a 1991 classical piece for five instruments by Ruth Zechlin
• Hamletmachine: A Non-Long Movie, a 2010 short film by Barcelona filmmaker Agustin Calderon.{{cite web|url=http://www.catalanfilmsdb.cat/es/producciones/cortometraje/hamletmachine/2261/ |title=Hamletmachine - Catalan Films & TV |publisher=Catalanfilmsdb.cat |access-date=2012-02-20}} In 2016, the film was released on the website Vimeo.{{cite web|url=https://vimeo.com/31475816 |title=HAMLETMACHINE - a non-long movie, Calderón Agustín |date=2011 | access-date=2016-12-14}}

Opheliamachine, a postmodernist response to Heiner Mueller's Hamletmachine by the Polish-born American playwright and dramaturg Magda Romanska, premiered to critical acclaim at City Garage Theatre in Santa Monica, CA in 2013, opened at the Berliner Ensemble in Germany on September 30, 2022, and was published in nine languages by [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/opheliamachine-9781350398832/ Bloomsbury] in 2024.

• Die Hamletmaschine (with Blixa Bargeld), Rough Records 1991
• Maschine (by Ester Brinkmann), Supposé 1998

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20010903231024/http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Hamletmachine.PDF English translation of Die Hamletmaschine]
• [https://archive.today/20130211064644/http://www.galerie-raskolnikow.de/paddavis/pages/Hamlet2.html Alternative English translation of Die Hamletmaschine]
• [https://vimeo.com/31475816 Hamletmachine a non-long movie by Agustín Calderón]

{{Müller plays}}

{{Hamlet}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamletmachine}}

Category:Plays by Heiner Müller

Category:Einstürzende Neubauten albums

Category:1977 plays

Category:1991 albums

Category:Plays and musicals based on Hamlet

Category:East German plays

Category:Postmodern plays