Castle premiere

No “Hamlet”, but five Hamlets in the darkness of the stage

The new "Hamlet" at the Burg - with Michael Maertens and Marie-Luise Stockinger (center) in a stage design by Katrin Brack.(Bild: Burgtheater/Lalo Jodlbauer)

The first production under new director Stefan Bachmann was eagerly awaited at Vienna's Burgtheater. German director Karin Henkel staged the Shakespeare classic "Hamlet" - with five actors slipping into the role of the Danish prince: a wilting salad of quotations with riotously funny interludes!

The new Burgtheater director, the affable Swiss Stefan Bachmann, probably had something else in mind for his debut: The crowd-pleaser "Hamlet" with the Ifflandring winner Jens Harzer in the title role and the zeitgeist prima donna Karin Henkel at the director's desk would have been great acting theater and post-dramatic play-smashing in one.

What remained was the wreckage: the title role was split between five people and Harzer dropped out after the first reading. What you see on the darkly glowing, attractive stage (Katrin Brack) is a wilted salad of quotations with distributed roles, theatrical platitudes and riotous comic interludes that were unhappily generated from the comedy scene.

It was obvious that someone was so tipsy from their own inspirations, from the advance rush of applause from the feuilleton bubble, that even in the manageable two and three-quarter hours, they lost their way. Katharina Lorenz and Michael Maertens leave the strongest impression, although he is thrown back on the Punch that he has long since ceased to be. Of the inherited ensemble, Marie-Luise Stockinger is more interesting than Tim Werths, while the newcomers are inconspicuous (Alexander Angeletta), overambitious (Benny Claessens) or obtrusive (Kate Strong).

Riotously funny: the new "Burg" Hamlet(Bild: Burgtheater/Lalo Jodlbauer)

In summary, one Hamlet, but a first-rate one, would have sufficed. In any case, the hope for a striking increase in the avalanche of premieres over the next few days lives on.