Hamletmachine #2026
© Roman Iwasiwka
© Ruby Wang
© Ruby Wang
© Roman Iwasiwka
Collaboration
Choreographer, sound designer, dramaturg
A pre-historic site of relics filled with objects: a Lenin bust, a Samai oil lamp, a faded photo from Vietnamese childhood, a pair of Chinese earrings, a crown, a skull with an axe. A group of four archaeologists enters this ruin of history. Or is it? Is it, perhaps, a family archive of the dead? As excavation turns into performance, they become a trio of theater makers, joined by the ghost of Ophelia, and begin to examine a machine that constantly propels them forward yet traps them inside (r)evolving history.
Part theater, part installation, Hamletmachine #2026 is co-devised by Jane Su, Diliara Sadykova, Saumya Shinde, Coco Zhang, and Hung Ha. It invites you into a history of media, bookended by its past and future, and thus into a history of us as human beings. The devisers dare to create a #2026 version of Heiner Müller’s timeless Hamletmachine in our age—the human age: the age of documentation and representation, of endless recording, of the self watching itself being watched.
Text: Jane Su
Beyond the text of the script, physical movement plays a significant role in the storytelling of Hamletmachine #2026. Choreography and movement are woven throughout the play, including a risque dance break set to ambient techno in the middle of the performance.
— The Williams Record
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Conception, Direction & Video: Jane Su
Performers: Diliara Sadykova, Saumya Shinde, Coco Zhang, Hung Ha
Stage Management: Quin Repetto, Patrice Moriarty
Dramaturgy: Lyla Butler, Ziwei Chen, Ruby Wang
Scenic & Props: Leo Yihan Wang
Lighting: Bennett Ptak, Abdiel Perde
Costume: Diliara Sadykova
Music: Coco Zhang
Movement: Ziwei Chen
Sound: Ziwei Chen, Jane Su
Mentorship: Anya Klepikov, Jorge Cousineau
Presentations
62 Center, Williamstown, MA, USA