Thursday, February 27, 1997
THEATER:
UCLA student brings intense visual flair to Müller’s
six-page playBy Vanessa VanderZanden
Daily Bruin Contributor
"I was Hamlet," wails a voice in a rich falsetto. "I was
Hamlet," he wails again. Madness overtakes the central figure, who,
seated in a chair, stares intently at his twiddling fingers. Soon,
various characters rush the sparse stage, repeating muddled line
after muddled line of heavily loaded, senseless jargon against the
taped recording of vacuous audio static.
This intense artistic chaos will undoubtedly spawn rich
discussion from theatergoers from all walks of life. Opening this
Friday in Macgowan Hall’s Little Theater, Heiner Müller’s
"Hamletmachine" spins through a plethora of social and political
issues under the direction of master of fine arts student Nicolas
House.
Drawing on sources as varied as Shakespeare’s "Hamlet" and the
Manson family murders, House’s production runs unlike any of this
script ever performed.
"Heiner Müller, the playwright, had the idea that anyone
can do the play anywhere and whatever you bring to it is what you
bring to it," House says. "Certainly, there are very specific
references that pertain directly to Müller, but in terms of a
public use, anyone can do anything they want with the play. Any
production of this piece is like a fingerprint; it will never be
like another production."
Operating within the confines of a mere six-page script, House
and his cast rely on visuals to re-interpret the work’s larger
implications. The two main characters, Hamlet and Ophelia, each
recite a monologue throughout the play’s course, yet at times it
can be difficult to distinguish who performs the lead. All actors
become Hamlet and all actresses Ophelia in a swarming mass of
disconnected line deliveries.
"The way Hamlet is represented in this play is as an archetypal
character," explains House. "He has existed throughout history in
different forms. He may exist as a Richard III from Shakespeare, or
Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky.
"They all derive from Hamlet because we in the modern Western
world have decided that he was a tragic hero, that his character is
someone that we look up to and aspire to be. Especially those of us
who have gone to higher education because he’s someone who’s young,
intelligent, very conscious and yet he is not a great person. He’s
a misogynist, he’s a murderer, and that’s the duality of the world
that we live in."
However, even without a firm understanding of Shakespeare’s
work, one can derive greater meanings from the references made in
"Hamletmachine." Having added some poetry of Sylvia Plath to the
script as well as a "Snow White" song and Mr. Rogers allusions,
House hopes to connect audiences to the work and perhaps a new way
of viewing those contemporary figures will emerge as well.
"In the kind of world we live in, everything is taken out of
context," says House. "It’s the kind of play that someone might
have to read like 100 times to get all of the references. But
that’s a challenge, too, that what the actors are doing isn’t so
abstract that the audience feels disconnected to it."
House goes on to explain how various literary devices add to
"Hamletmachine"’s avant garde performance style.
"The way the play is written is with a lot of irony and
dichotomy and parallel. So, you may see this play and hear three
different people do one sentence throughout its course, and through
the actions that go along with that sentence or those phrases,
three entirely different phrases emerge based on the context of
what the sentence means."
"But aside from the intellectual approach, we only respond to
what goes on in the play emotionally and that’s raw and that’s
real."
As a product of Nazi Germany, Heiner Müller’s issues
revolve around the atrocities of World War II and the aftermath of
a fascist regime. At one point, the Nazis pursued his Marxist
father and the underground communist group to which he belonged.
Though the guilt Müller felt over the entire situation sparked
the birth of this 1977 play, the work speaks to all members of
humanity in their varied social conditions.
"As an African American, I felt I could respond in a theatrical
way to some of the implications that were made in the text, because
the play is essentially about oppression," House says. "Everyone
who auditioned responded to something in the text that immediately
grabbed them, based on just the language and the words in the play.
They didn’t necessarily know how to articulate what it was that
they were responding to, but there was something there.
In this way, House narrowed down the initial auditioning group
of 85 to a cast of 13. Though the vague script could have involved
any number of performers, House looked for an ability to move,
speak and understand the work when deciding upon collaborators.
Working improvisationally from the actors, the process proved
tedious, yet resulted in a gratifying experience for both director
and actor alike.
"It’s not often in traditional regional theater that you get a
chance to do something like this," explains actor Adam Shive. "This
is the first time I think that this work has ever been performed on
the West Coast. So, that alone intrigued me. Plus, I’d played
Hamlet before, so the whole idea of playing something to compare to
that was interesting. And, I’d heard some things about Nick
(House), who’s an amazing visualist."
Working off Müller’s vision that we live in a society of
fragmented images, infused with television’s 30-second commercial
spots, House’s production seeks to carry through that idea. Through
brief scenes of characters in constant movement, rehashing sharp
line after sharp line of broken phrases, the show caters to short
attention spans. Yet, at the same time, this unique style
translates best to the theater, providing viewers an experience
unattainable through other forms of media.
"The actors are very excited about the play because there’s a
sense of a freedom in doing it," House explains. "With only six
pages, you get to do whatever you want with it. But, in that way,
there’s almost too much freedom because last week I’m sitting there
and I’m like, wow. I didn’t cover all the bases I really wanted to
because the play is that dense."
THEATER: "Hamletmachine" opens Friday at the Little Theater in
Macgowan Hall. Tickets are $12, $6 for students. For more
information, call 825-2101.
BAHMAN FARAHDEL
Adam Shive is one of several actors who portray Hamlet in Heiner
Müller’s "Hamletmachine."