Dramaturgy of "Hamlet"(s) in Czech Theatre between 2000 and 2023

David Drozd

doi:10.18778/2083-8530.28.09

Authors

David Drozd Masaryk University, Czech Republic https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3351-8511

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.28.09

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Keywords:

Hamlet, dramaturgy, directing, post-modern theatre, performance analysis, Czech theatre

Abstract

The paper focuses on five Czech productions of Hamlet that attracted the most critical and public attention between 2000 and 2023. Namely, the productions directed by Miroslav Krobot (2006), Jan Mikulášek (2009), Daniela Špinar (2013), Michal Dočekal (2021) and finally the most recent version by Jakub Čermák (2022). All five performances could be seen as contemporary reinterpretations of a classical text using a (post-)modern stylistic approach, as examples of post-millennium Hamlets. The paper discusses dramaturgical choices (such as the conceptualisation of the ghost, the mousetrap scene, or the character of Fortinbras) in order to identify and analyse possibilities for interpreting Hamlet as a political drama in the context of Czech performance tradition and the current political situation. The results show that performances generally present variations of Hamlet as a family drama, foregrounding different issues of memory and body, while the political reading is obsolete.

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Author Biography

David Drozd, Masaryk University, Czech Republic

is head of the Department of Theatre Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. He is a dramaturge, translator and theatre theoretician. His main research fields are performance analysis (with a focus on modern and postmodern Czech theatre culture, especially directing) and structural and semiotic theatre theory (with a special focus on the Prague Linguistic Circle and the history of Czech theatre theory as such). He has edited The Theatre Theory Reader: Prague School Writings (2016) and Otakar Zich: The Aesthetics of Dramatic Art (2024).

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