by Natalia Oprea, photo: Maria Ștefănescu
As part of the BABEL International Performing Arts Festival in Târgoviște, the audience experienced a theatrical event not easily forgotten: “Hamlet mortuus est”, a visceral and daring production directed by Levente Kocsárdi, brought to life by the Timișoara team.
This performance is not a mere reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, but a brutal and deeply sensorial immersion into the abyss of the human conscience.
Far from the traditional Hamlet — the rational, philosophical one — Kocsárdi’s version presents a Hamlet torn by fear, a character who lives and feels with dizzying intensity. This is a Hamlet of raw pain, of existential dread, of fear — both of himself and of others — a figure who does not philosophize, but burns.
One of the most powerful directorial choices is the placement of the audience directly on stage. The space thus becomes a shared territory between actors and spectators, blurring any boundary between art and life.
Each viewer becomes an active part of the inner chaos, a direct witness — and at times an unwitting participant — in the character’s spiritual breakdown.
Aggressive sounds, echoing lines, tense musical sequences, and visceral audio effects turn the stage into a true emotional resonance chamber.
Multimedia projections — kaleidoscopic images and distorted fragments of reality — contribute to the dreamlike-apocalyptic atmosphere, offering a hypnotic visual language.
The scenographic elements — soil, mud, flickering candles, and symbolic costumes — are more than mere set pieces; they are extensions of internal states. Everything lives, moves, and breathes with Hamlet — and with the audience, caught in a full-bodied sensorial experience.
“Hamlet mortuus est” is not a performance you watch. It is one you live, absorb through every pore.
It is a hallucinatory descent into the intimacy of a wounded being, a show of rare power that pulls the spectator out of everyday comfort and plunges them into the turmoil of a torn conscience.
This production is, without doubt, one of the most provocative and unforgettable presences at this year’s BABEL edition — a living, unsettling work that resonates long after the final echo.