Hamlet

Statement of the Jury

The truth is at stake here, nothing more and nothing less. At Schauspielhaus Bochum, the country’s rulers, corrupted by power and deliberately portrayed as merely average, see Sandra Hüller’s diaphanous Hamlet as an increasing and incalculable risk: Overwhelmed by a vision, Hamlet her*himself has effectively experienced her*his father’s murder in Johan Simons’ production. Quietly, manically, she*he exerts herself to find out what is really going on and, thus, what is the morally consequent thing to do. Gina Haller as Ophelia – and also as Horatio – is by Hüller’s side. She is evidently a match for Hamlet: feisty and stubborn, clever, casually fun-loving, level-headed and 100 percent caring. An impressively severe understatement is the order of the day on this stage, designed by Johannes Schütz and encircled by danger. Instead of the customary bloodbath, we witness a tidy and subtly ironic clean-up campaign. Except: Hüller’s relentlessly upright Hamlet is too late to save a world that has been ruled into ruin. And that is the true tragedy.