Christoph Schlingensief's 'Hamlet' in Switzerland: A Theatrical 'Resocialisation'

Abstract

In April 2001, German artist Christoph Schlingensief (1960-2010) was invited to direct a production at the prestigious Zürich Schauspielhaus in Switzerland. With his decision to stage 'Hamlet', he sought not only to make Shakespeare's play relevant in a contemporary sense, but to interrogate its public reception and intervene in Switzerland's political landscape, dominated at the time by a sharp rise in support for the far-right Schweizerische Volkspartei (Swiss People's Party), henceforth SVP. The play itself became the backdrop for the supposition that in 2001, "something rotten" was afoot in Switzerland and its European neighbour countries, in terms of the increasing approval enjoyed by populist parties. In an unusual move, Schlingensief selected sonic, kinaesthetic and visual elements of a 1963 production of 'Hamlet' by German director, Gustaf Gründgens, on to which he then superimposed his own intermedial layers. A special soundtrack created for the piece required the actors to speak certain monologues synchronously with the recordings of the actors in Grundgens' version.