Hamlet, or about Death: A Romanian Hamlet directed by Vlad Mugur (2001)

• Authors: Monica Matei-Chesnoiu
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This essay looks at the 2001 Romanian production of Hamlet directed by Vlad Mugur at the Cluj National Theatre (Romania) from the perspective of geocriticism and spatial literary studies, analysing the stage space opened in front of the audiences. While the bare stage suggests asceticism and alienation, the production distances the twenty-first century audiences from what might have seemed difficult to understand from their postmodern perspectives. The production abbreviates the topic to its bare essence, just as a map condenses space, in the form of “literary cartography” (Tally 20). There is no room in this production for baroque ornaments and theatrical flourishing; instead, the production explores the exposed depth of human existence. The production is an exploration of theatre and art, of what dramatists and directors can do with artful language, of the theatre as an exploration of human experience and potential. It is about the human condition and the artist’s place in the world, about old and new, about life and death, while everything happens on the edge of nothingness. The director’s own death before the opening night of the production ties Shakespeare’s Hamlet with existential issues in an even deeper way than the play itself allows us to expose.

Keywords

EN

geocriticism; Hamlet; Vlad Mugur; Shakespeare production; Shakespeare in Romania; spatial manipulation

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 35
• Pages: 51-60

Dates

published

2019-12-30

Contributors

author

Monica Matei-Chesnoiu

• Ovidius University of Constanta, Romania

References

• Călinescu, George. “Nae Ionescu.” Istoria literaturii române de la origini pînă în prezent. Bucureşti: Editura Minerva, 1982. 953-954.
• Călinescu, George. “Şerban Cioculescu.” Istoria literaturii române de la origini pînă în prezent. Bucureşti: Editura Minerva, 1982. 914-915.
• Constantinescu, Marina. “Hamlet sau despre moarte.” România Literară 27 (2001). https://arhiva.romlit.ro/index.pl/hamlet_sau_despre_moarte. 31 July 2019.
• Cover illustration to Shakespeare Quarterly 50 (Summer 1999). Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hamlet in John McTiernan’s 1993 film Last Action Hero. Movie adaptation written by Zach Penn and Adam Leff. With Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Murray Abraham, Art Carney. Columbia Pictures, Oak Productions, 1993.
• Horasganian, Bedros. “Julieta, Ofelia, Romeo şi Hamlet.” Observator cultural 93 (December 2001). https://www.observatorcultural.ro/articol/julieta-ofelia-romeo-si-hamlet/. 31 July 2019.
• Ichicawa, Mariko. The Shakespearean Stage Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
• Matei-Chesnoiu, Monica. Shakespeare in the Romanian Cultural Memory. With a Foreword by Arthur F. Kinney. Madison, Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2006.
• Mugur, Vlad. “William Shakespeare. Tragedia lui Hamlet, Prinţ de Danemarca. Versiune regizorală de Vlad Mugur.” In Vlad Mugur, spectacolul Morţii. Ed. Magda Petreu and Ion Vartic. Cluj Napoca: Biblioteca Apostrof, Teatrul National Cluj, 2001. 45-88.
• Petreu, Magda and Ion Vartic, eds. Vlad Mugur: spectacolul morţii [Vlad Mugur: The Spectacle of Death]. Cluj Napoca: Biblioteca Apostrof, Teatrul National Cluj, 2001.
• Pfister, Manfred. “Shakespeare and Italy, or, the Law of Diminishing Returns.” Shakespeare’s Italy. Functions of Italian Locations in English Renaissance Drama. Ed. Michele Marrapodi, A. J. Hoenselaars, Marcello Capuzzo, and L. Falzon Santucci. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993. 295-303.
• Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. The Arden Shakespeare. Third Series. Ed. Harold Jenkins. 5th ed. London: Routledge, 1993.
• Tally, Robert T. Jr. “Adventures in Literary Cartography: Explorations, Representations, Projections.” In Literature and Geography: The Writing of Space throughout History. Ed. Emmanuelle Peraldo. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016. 20-36.
• Worthen, William B. Shakespeare and the Authority of Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Identifiers

DOI

10.18778/2083-8530.20.05