HAMLET

BORIS NIKITIN (DE/CH)

Between biography and queer performance, accompanied by a baroque quartet, perfomer and electro-musician Julian Meding, with a vacillating androgynous presence, appears as a Hamlet.

This Hamlet is not Hamlet. This Hamlet is Julian Meding, a Hamlet destabilized by a world he perceives as false and deceptive, until he decides to feign madness and play with his strangeness. Is he or is he not, he becomes the actor of his own life.
With Boris Nikitin and Julian Meding, the tragedy of this Hamlet does not happen in a distant Denmark but here and now, with Julian Meding’s presence in front of the audience. The singer and performer tells his life story, but is it real? Does he tell lies to put on airs? He talks about his childhood, how he built his personality, his rejection of powerlessness and his need to act on his surroundings – even destroy, starting with himself. He sings. Fully shaven, his body is both slender and agile. He appears to be candid and manipulative, gloomy, uncomfortable as a teenager and confident as a rock star.

Meding invites the award-winning Basel string quartet Der Musikalische Garten onstage. The musicians’ virtuosity clashes with his nonchalance, real or feigned. But the music is also a possible image of the invisible force that torments Hamlet and Meding.

“This is not theater. It is not a performance. Nor is it a concert. It is not real life. Nor reality. It is not Hamlet”-the actor will say at the end. It is a trap of reality that serves to awaken the consciousness towards a fluctuating and aimless world.

HAMLET concept & direction Boris Nikitin
text Boris Nikitin, Julian Meding
with Julian Meding e Der musikalische Garten: Annekatrin Beller (Violoncelle), Karoline Echeverri Klemm (Violon), Daniela Niedhammer (Clavecin), Germá Echeverri Chamorro (Violon)
set design Nadia Fistarol
music Boris Nikitin, Uzrukki Schmidt, Der musikalische Garten
video Georg Lendorff, Elvira Isenring
dramaturgy & sound design Matthias Meppelink
lighting design Benjamin Hauser
production Annett Hardegen
co-production Théâtre de Vidy – Kaserne Basel – Gessnerallee,
Zurich – Ringlokschuppen, Mülheim an der Ruhr – HAU-Hebbel am Ufer Berlin – Münchner Kammerspiele
support Pro Helvetia – Fondation suisse pour la culture – Fondation Ernst Göhner – Pour-cent culturel Migros – Kunststiftung NRW – Commission danse et théâtre de Bâle-Ville et Bâle-Campagne

SUN 08.10.2017 | 20.30
PALCO SALA TEATRO LAC – LUGANO

22.00 After-show meeting with the audience
moderator Angela Demattè
translation Melitta Jalkanen