11 March 2003

• Hamlet Machine in Ruigoord
• Background Information
• Opening Hours

13,14,15,16 March
Prelude to the World Wide Video Festival 2003

HAMLET MACHINE

An interdisciplinary production by Dominik Barbier,
based on a play by Heiner Müller.

On Thursday 13 March 2003 the world premiere will take place of the interdisciplinary production Hamlet Machine, as conceived by French artist Dominik Barbier, based on a text by the legendary German playwright Heiner Müller, who, until his death in 1995, was actively involved in this project. In this version Barbier brings together various art disciplines: visual art, electronic music, dance and theatre.

Actors of Toneelgroep Amsterdam – Alwin Pulinckx and Hugo Koolschijn – will collaborate with French musicians Kaspar Toeplitz, Laurent Dailleau, Didier Casamitjana, actor Zaidi Hocine and dancer Giovanna Velardi. Ten projections of Barbier’s characteristic, authentic images, enhanced by Heiner Müller’s original texts, will interact with the musicians, actors and the dancer. For almost two hours the audience will be immersed in music, images and sound. The venue is a large barn in Ruigoord, Amsterdam.

Background information
Hamlet Machine is one of the most ambitious works in Heiner Müller’s oeuvre, and is recognized as one of the most prominent pieces of European theatre. The piece is based on Müller’s attempt to write Hamlet in Budapest, a Shakespearian drama set in the socialist world, about the Cold War and the Hungarian uprising of 1956.

Impressed by both Heiner Müller’s writings and personality, in 1993 Dominik Barbier made the documentary J’étais Hamlet. Here, Barbier foremost wanted to ‘visualize’ Müller’s writings in an attempt to convey the aesthetic shock and deep emotions he had experienced while reading Müller’s incredible texts. J’étais Hamlet was shown at festivals all over the world and was broadcasted on television in various European countries.

This was followed by a production of the Hamlet Machine, together with Heiner Müller. This theatre project ended abruptly when in 1995 Müller suddenly died. Elaborating on the material accumulated so far, Barbier has realized a number of smaller projects around this theme since 1996: other video installations, interactive installations, videos and CD-ROMs under the collective title Cycle de la cité des morts (Cycle of the City of the Dead). Simultaneously he further explored the possibilities that electronic art had to offer in combination with theatrical presentation.

Now, eight years after Müller’s death, Barbier will present the world première of Hamlet Machine in Ruigoord, Amsterdam, on 13 March of this year.

Other works by Dominik Barbier that were previously presented at the World Wide Video Festival include: L’oeuvre Inquiétante (1987) en J’étais Hamlet (1994).

Opening Hours:

• Première: Thursday night 13 March 2003 from 8.30 until 10 pm *
• Matinees: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 2.30 pm until 4 pm *
• Night shows: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, start 8.30 pm; until 10 pm *

Hamlet Machine is an international co-production by: Système Friche Théâtre, Fearless Medi@terranee, comETH en G.M.E.M. (Marseille), Compagnie Jean Jordheuil (Paris), Compagnie Scènes (Lyon), World Wide Video Festival (Amsterdam), Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Théâtre Nationale Algerien, C.I.C.V. Centre Pierre Schaeffer, EVIL productions, Perfect Technologies.

The World Wide Video Festival is supported financially on a regular basis by: het Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap en de Gemeente Amsterdam Hamlet Machine in Amsterdam was made possible by the financial support of: Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Cultuurfonds van de Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten, Goethe Institut, Ambassade de France au Pays Bas/AFAA, European Coördination of Film Festivals.