Ghost in the Hamletmachine

Senior Theater major Ramona Kingsley will be presenting two performances of her adaptation of Heiner Müller's "Hamletmachine" Feb. 26-27.

Kingsley, who is using this as her senior project, is titling it "The Hamletmachine Project, adapted by Ramona Kingsley." She used a scene from the postmodernist play for her Directing II project and decided to use the entire show for this purpose.

The play was written 1977 and is based on William Shakespeare's "Hamlet." The characters Ophelia and Hamlet in particular are "trying to break away from their historical roles, as well as the social and psychological issues that each character has to deal with while trying to alter their fate," says Kingsley. While the text itself is less than ten pages in length, each performance of it is completely unique. According to dramaturg Vanessa Ford from the University of Georgia, the play touches on "a multiplicity of themes from questions of gender to concerns about the relationship of man and nature, to the destructive and redemptive powers of technology" and provides a "framework for the cast and crew to highlight what they feel are the most relevant of those issues."

Kingsley's production will feature Nate Gibson, Javier Pritchard and Justin Pietropaolo as the three Hamlets, Kate Truini, Keriann Bellamy and Anna Kowalczuk as the three Ophelias, John Hamolsky as Claudius and Specter, Rachel Rutledge as Gertrude and the Madonna and Ned Allen as Horatio. Elin Dehuvyne created the costumes, Tyler Cummins created the sound and Rachel Rutledge created the programs and posters.

The performances are on Feb. 26 and 27 at 8 p.m. in C.D. Smith Theater at the Miller Performing Arts Center and are free of charge.