Hamlet II: Exit Ghost

Ensemble: 2 actors, live electronics (2 computers, MIDI keyboard and controllers, 4-channel sound system), live and pre-recorded video projections, 2 cameramen, light operator.

 

For Hamlet II: Exit Ghost, the director turns a theatre stage into a TV studio, a laboratory in which the actors take apart Shakespeare's words and characters. Dahlqvist is staging a play within a play. The confusion he maintains between the roles of Hamlet and Polonius and Ophelia and Gertrude exacerbates the madness, doubt and despair overwhelming them. The two actors battle with the play, masterfully navigating between its narrative line and a psychoanalytical interpretation of its mythical protagonists. These are made dramatically familiar thanks to the claustrophobic set and images filmed live. A meditation on identity, the weight of the past and death, Hamlet II: Exit Ghost is evocative of Scandinavian film and television series as much as the legendary productions of this classic among classics. Shakespeare meets Bergman meets The Killing! (Hillaert 2012)

 

Text & video: Jörgen Dahlqvist | Music & Live-electronics: Kent Olofsson |  Actors: Linda Ritzén, Rafael Pettersson | Light Design: Johan Bergman |  Technician & Camera operator: Johan Nordström |  Camera: Nils Dernevik |Working period: August – November 2010 |  Premiere: Inter Arts Center, Malmö, November 14 2010

 

Performances:

Inter Arts Center, Malmö, November 17-20, 2010

Inkonst 17-18, Malmö, March 25-27, 2011

Volksbühne, Berlin, November 30 - December 1,  2011

Dramaten Elverket, Stockholm, December 10–11, 2011

Kunstendesfestivaldesartes, Brussels, May 7-10, 2012

Göteborg Dans och Teaterfestival, Atalante, Gothenburg, May 19, 2012

Festival Temps d’images, Paris, October 20-21, 2012

 Örebro Länsteater, Örebro, April 23-24, 2013

 

Download

  • Text - original version
  • Text - English translation
  • Text - radio theatre version, English translation

 

 

Hamlet II: Exit Ghost - radio theatre version 2012

Performance of Hamlet II: Exit Ghost - Atalante, Gothenburg. Filmed by Niklas Rydén