Hamlet: O God, Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
Absent thee from felicity a while,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain
To tell my story.

These words are just about final words by Hamlet. Everybody is familiar with this young man’s story, since Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet remains eternally popular with audiences as well as with actors. It has been told and retold for centuries, which means that Hamlet’s request to his friend Horatio has been met. The story of Hamlet has undergone innumerable interpretations in different languages and cultures, and this has no end in sight. There will always be a new Horatio entrusted with the task to tell Hamlet’s story to his audience. His failure to do so would result in his feeling guilty. However, it remains a mystery how is it possible that he never gets tired of the story, which, in its verse form, thrives on the indecisiveness. Hamlet cannot resolve his dilemma; he wallows in it, as if it were his only possession. His indecision is his common thread; he bumps into it with each step. The audience watches him and understands him, even though they know all too well that Hamlet is essentially a complete antithesis of a hero.

In his take on Hamlet, director Daniel Day Škufca insisted on a monologue form, performed by Robert Korošec, as monologue is a primary narrative form, and the only form that Horatio could assume as an individual. However, we are interested in Hamlet only; his fears, his reflections, his procrastination. Where does anxiety arise from and why it cannot lead anywhere else but into madness? It is his only way to withstand the world, since Hamlet is unable to take or see any other path. This excessively long monologue, written in verse, which makes it even more detached from contemporary listeners, deals with one topic only: Hamlet is unable to step from his passive position, while there is a simultaneously present internal monologue within him that grows and gets increasingly madder in its nonsensical utterances. And yet, it is due to his anxiety that we are interested in our story.

Postproduction by KUD SNG

Special thanks to David Orešič, Andrej Vrhovnik, Vid Hajnšek, Tatjana Stanič, Gramatik and Pocket Teater Studio