RICARDO FRAYHA
producer

As a politically engaged man, Heiner Müller was privileged. He lived long enough to see his ideology come to fruition and had space, for a time, to work in favor of the shared dream of justice and equality. However, he also witnessed this ideal being corrupted in the hands of men and turning to dust before their eyes. The German playwright, who would turn 80 in 2009, had his work and existence directly linked to the German Democratic Republic. His figure represented both a symbol of this utopia and a critical observer of a reality that preferred to distance itself from the rest of the world. A disturber on both sides of the wall. His texts, of a political nature, capture the essence of human social relations and invite each viewer to a personal questioning. Defender of a formalist theater, which refuted any scenic crutch, Müller presupposes his audience as co-builder of each work: it really only constitutes in the personal relationship with the discourse structure he proposes. As a tribute to the playwright, the Goethe-Institut São Paulo presents, in partnership with Sesc São Paulo, the production  Hamletmachine in a staging by Dimiter Gotscheff of the Deutsches Theater, Berlin. Conceived in 1977, Hamletmachine is one of the most acclaimed works of the line developed by the playwright who dialogues with fundamental texts from the history of Western culture. Creating connection points with Shakespeare's Hamlet , the play invites a critical journey on the trajectory of our civilization. In it, conflicts already evidenced in the great work of the English master appear revised by the contemporary gaze - irrefutable proof that the essence of human dilemmas is not lost with cyclical changes. Among them, we can highlight the questioning on how to position yourself, as a thinking person, in the face of social and moral disintegration. The work, created in times of political cooling in East Germany, is equally relevant and acidic for the public today.

 

Wolfgang Bader

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DIMITER GOTSCHEFF​

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Born in Bulgaria in 1943, Dimiter Gotscheff came to East Berlin at the beginning of the Sixties to study  veterinary medicine. He soon became the student and colleague of Benno Besson at the Deutsches Theater and at the Volksbühne at Rosa Luxemburg Platz in Berlin. In particular his Heiner Müller productions including Philoktet in Sofia in 1983 and Quartett in Cologne in 1985 caused a great sensation. From the mid-Eighties onwards he was active on many German-speaking stages, from Vienna to Hamburg. His productions could regularly be seen at the Berlin Theatertreffen, including his 2006 version of Chekhov’s Ivanov from the Berlin Volksbühne as well as the 2007 production of Molière’s Tartuffe, a co-production of the Salzburg Festspiele and Thalia Theatre. In the same year, Die Perser, which he directed at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, was voted Production of the Year in the annual critics’ vote held by Theaterheute magazine. Dimiter Gotscheff received the Peter Weiss Prize awarded by the City of Bochum. In the 2009/2010 season he premiered his production Ödipus, Tyrann by Sophocles / Hölderlin / Heiner Müller at Thalia. In Antigone, in the translation by Friedrich Hölderin, Dimiter Gotscheff continued his intensive examination of Greek antiquity. His production of Immer noch Sturm by Peter Handke at Thalia, a co-production with the Salzburg Festspielen, was voted Play of the Year 2012 and received the Mülheim Dramatikerpreis. Dimiter Gotscheff died on † 20th October 2013.

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HAMLET MACHINE

 

by Heiner Müller | Translation: Christine Röhrig / Marcos Renaux | Direction: Dimiter Gotscheff | Cast: Dimiter Gotscheff, Paula Cohen and Gero Camilo | Assistant Director: Annette Ramershoven | Lighting: Alessandra Domingues | Sound: Felipe Pires Ribeiro | Technical direction: Julio Cesarini | Technician: Wanderley Wagner da Silva | Graphic Design: Érico Peretta |
Photos: Experience Gallery

An adaptation of the Deutsches Theater, Berlin, 2007 | Setting and Costume Design: Mark Lammert | Music: Bert Wrede | Dramaturgy: Bettina Schültke | Lighting: Henning Streck

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Production in Brazil: prod.art.br | Artistic production: Matthias Pees and Ricardo Muniz Fernandes | Executive production: Jussara Rahal, Ricardo Frayha

 

Realisation: Goethe Institut in collaboration with Sesc São Paulo, Sesc Rio, Montevideo and Córdoba Theater Festivals

CPT - Sesc Consolação (workshops)

São Paulo, SP, Brazil

04 to 19/02/2009

Sesc Santana

São Paulo, SP, Brazil

02 and 03/09/2009

Sesc Espaço Copacabana 

Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

09 and 10/09/2009

Teatro Solis

Montevideo, Uruguay

30/09 and 01/10/2009

Teatro Real

Cordoba, Argentina

04 and 05/10/2009