Hamlet. In the Folds of Time

In a new female body, Hamlet awakens to rediscover, traverse and transform the past: from the violent patriarchy represented by Claudius and the new tyrannical king who killed his father to wars and deaths. And all this while revisiting the story. When she goes back in time, as if through a mirror, she will relive the history of the play she is in and the many ways in which it has been brought to the stage. Gertrude and Ophelia, Hamlet’s mother and lover, become representatives of everything that occupies the protagonist’s mind. All three women navigate between past and present, with the here and now of the theatre as their destination.

Film plays a fundamental role in the montage, which uses it as a tool to amplify theatre and reality. How many women have played Hamlet throughout history? Charlotte Charkei in the 18th century, then the eternal Sara Bernard and, at the same Teatre Grec, Núria Espert in 1960. Now, however, we are going to see not an actress playing a male role, but a woman who is Hamlet and who, without prejudice, crosses the boundaries of gender.

Christiane Jatahy has brought her theatrical creations to the Temporada Alta festival on several occasions, where we have seen Depois do silêncio, Entre chien et loup and, in 2014, Les tres germanes, in which she also used cinema, forcing the audience to choose between the real performance and the one seen in a live recording. The hybridisation of theatre and cinema is one of the hallmarks of Jatahy, an artist associated with the Odéon - Théâtre de l’Europe in Paris, who now makes her debut at the Grec Festival in Barcelona.

Produced by Odéon - Théâtre de l’Europe in participation with Cie Vértice - Axis productions.

Co-produced by Wiener Festwochen (Vienna), Les Nuits de Fourvière - Festival international de la Métropole de Lyon, Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Le Quartz - Scène nationale de Brest, La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand scène nationale, De Singel Anvers.

This show is supported by the Cercle de l’Odéon.

The Vértice company is supported by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Île-de-France - Ministère de la Culture.

A special thanks to La Ferme du Buisson - Scène Nationale de Noisiel.