23 August, 2024 at Prague Castle, part of the Czech Summer Shakespeare Festival
additional performances announced soon
The EU Creative Europe Grant program is supporting a ground-breaking and historical theatre collaboration between the the Prague Shakespeare Company in Prague, Czech Republic, bremer shakespeare company in Bremen, Germany and The Odesa Academic Ukrainian Theater named after Vasyl Vasylko in Odesa, Ukraine to create a unique theatrical experience: the WE ARE HAMLET Project’s production of Shakespeare’s timeless classic: HAMLET.
The WE ARE HAMLET Project is a new multi-lingual, English-language based theatrical reimagining of William Shakespeare’s HAMLET created by an international company of diverse artists, theatre makers and educators collaborating together to enlighten, inspire, educate and entertain audiences across Europe and the world. The Artistic Team of HAMLET will be comprised of artists from each partner theatre, working together under the direction of Guy Roberts, Artistic Director of PSC.
HAMLET, by William Shakespeare, is the single play in the Western tradition that encompasses the central questions of existence that applies to all humans across social, political, economic, educational, environmental, religious and racial boundaries. The play examines the conflict between private versus public duty and the individual’s obligation to the self and the State. It is a quintessential European play rooted in classical principles of examining the essential questions – Who Am I? Why Do I Exist? What Must I Do? As literary scholar Harold Bloom remarked, Hamlet corresponds to “the invention of the human.” Hamlet is so universal, so acutely modern and so acutely now in the sense that it encompasses nearly every emotion and impulse—love, passion, betrayal, revenge, jealousy and despair—known to humanity and still driving us today. In a sense it is always a perfect time to do Hamlet because Hamlet has a marvelous capacity to electrify audiences with its startlingly true reflection of human experience.
When we understand Hamlet, we understand ourself. When we understand ourself then we can begin to understand and empathize with others as well. It is no accident that Hamlet is one of the most popular plays around the world and every country finds something within the play that speaks to their national character and temperament. By exploring Hamlet through a multiplicity of views and artistic sensibilities with a multi-national and multi-lingual artistic company we seek to find the common experiences and humanity we all share across national boundaries and discover the truly European nature of the play and each other.
The audience’s experience of HAMLET the production will be entirely from Hamlet’s point of view. Only scenes and moments that Hamlet experiences will be presented. This will allow audiences and artists to live fully inside the world of the character and the challenges and issues faced by Hamlet. Additionally all the actors from PSC and bsc at various points will play the role of Hamlet – this will give the audience the experience of a multitude of Hamlets from many different viewpoints and sensibilities: female Hamlets, male Hamlets, young Hamlets, old Hamlets, Czech Hamlets, German Hamlets, British Hamlets, American Hamlets, etc. This unique opportunity highlights how in today’s world everyone is Hamlet and how everyone in Europe are asking ourselves who we are, who do we want to be and what must we do collectively to achieve our goals and realize our potential as individuals and Europeans. This will also allow us to examine what does it mean to be European?
HAMLET will also honor the future of Europe by including displaced Ukrainian actors as the group of homeless, travelling players who feature as part of the production. None of the Ukrainian actors will play Hamlet – to highlight that until Ukraine is a free, democratic and fully European country that Ukraine has no voice and must exist on the fringes and margins of European society.
Through live theatrical performances in Germany, the Czech Republic and Ukraine as well as other international theatre festivals within and without Europe and a large educational initiative supported by a special documentary chronicling the journey of the project, WE ARE HAMLET stimulates the imagination and fires the creativity of people across Europe and especially in Ukraine, giving us hope for the future and a model of international cooperation and mutual trust and understanding through the performing arts.
The WE ARE HAMLET Project unites the European past, present and future.
The bremer shakespeare company in Germany comes from a forward-thinking Western tradition of industry and thought; consequently, the bsc Artistic Team of HAMLET represents in some ways OLD Europe – the team are all native Germans with familial roots in Germany and Europe going back generations.
The Prague Shakespeare Company from the Czech Republic is a product of the NEW Europe – pulled from the shadows of occupation by the former Soviet Union and transformed by the Czech Republic opening its borders to the Western, English-speaking world; the PSC Artistic Team of HAMLET is truly international as is modern Europe – a combination of native Czechs with familial roots in the Czech Republic going back generations as well as immigrants and expats who have willingly moved to the Czech Republic and established long-term roots to create a new future in a new home country.
The Odesa Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater named after Vasyl Vasylko, represents the FUTURE of Europe as their Artistic Team struggles to escape tyranny and the War from Russian aggression and establish their identities as displaced individuals and refugees forced by circumstance to flee their home and hoping to create a new home in Europe and bring a Ukraine into the European community.
Prague Shakespeare Company:
Guy Roberts (Director, Project Leader), Jessica Boone (Producer, Actress), Karel Hermanek (Actor), Gregory Gudgeon (Actor), Taylor Napier (Actor), Přemysl Janda (Designer), Renee Lamari (Stage Manager & Actor), Stanislav Callas (Filmmaker, Translator).
Odesa Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre:
Oleksii Remishevskyi (Director, Project Leader), Yulia Pivovarova (Producer/Director, Project Coordinator), Oleksandr Samusenko (Director, Project Coordinator), Olena Zavhordinova (Actor, Project Coordinator), Alina Katrechko (Actress), Vera Timofeeva (Actress), and Ivan Zavgorodnii (Composer)
bremer shakespeare company:
Renate Heitmann (Producer, Project Director), Tim Lee (Project Leader, Actor), Anna Aleff (Administrator), Martina Lübbing (Administration, Assistant Director), Heike Neugebauer (Designer Stage/Costume), Ulrike Schimitschek (Assistant Designer Stage/Costume), Erik Roßbander (Actor), Svea Auerbach (Actress), Kai Henkhus (Technician)
