MEDIATHEK

Hamlet - This formally-inventive production of a well-known text provides an opportunity for an exceptional performance in the main role and an original interpretation. The emphasis is placed on the theme of Hamlet 's madness, on the situaton of a boy at a sensitve age whose basic values are falling apart. The updating and the major diffusion of the genre reveals new interpretations of a well-known text and new solutions to the situations involved.

Daniel Špinar (1979), director of the play "Hamlet", studied at DAMU, first acting and later direction, after which he worked as a director at the Vinohrady Theatre. His productions show his distinct directorial style, mosty regarding the formal treatment of the production. Daniel Špinar is the holder of a number of theatre awards - in 2008 he won the Evald Schorm Adward ("The Brothers Karamazov", Disk Theatre, Prague) and in 2010 the Alfréd Radok Award in the category of production of the year ("Woyzeck", Vinohrady Theatre), in 2009 and 2013 the Josef Balvin Award at the Prague German-Language Theatre Festival ("Woyzeck", Vinohrady Theatre; "Kabaret Kafka", Theatre on the Balustrade) and others. He has created some thirty productions, from classic to contemporary texts, and has written several plays himself. He is currently a director at the National Theatre and a lecturer at DAMU.

Review:
The walls are covered in tinted photographs of the family members, behind the protective rope are glass cases with exhibits, armour, weapons, and in their bottom parts even a skull sticking out of the earth. We thus have all teh props that we might expect in Hamlet. However, the creators have made something of a trap for the audience, since all the artefacts are used entirely differently thant we would expect according to cnvention. The director treats the iconic scenes in a similarly surprising way, whether Hamlet's famous monologue (the hero, crouching, whispers it into a microphone), the scene with the actors (Hamlet hands out scripts to the astonished members of the royal family, and forces them to act them) and the scene with the grave digger (some of the speeches are recited by the mad Ophelia). In short, in this production everything is different, including the end.
(by Jana Soprová, Czech Radio)

Špinar shows us a geyser of ideas, unusual solutions to well-known situations. He has regrouped things, cut the old text, even ground it to dust, added entertaining ornaments and garlands. He has it all thought out, even though occasionally something lags behind and is somewhat difficult to interpret. In the end, however, you realise that in such cases the answer to the question "why" is not that important, that this form has its force. And, what is more, the company is on top form under his leadership.
(by Jana Machalická, Lidové noviny)

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22nd International Festival Theatre Pilsen Booklet (printed edition)