DIE HAMLETMASCHINE (THE HAMLET MACHINE)

“Behind me the ruins of Europe.” This phrase from part one of THE HAMLET MACHINE, Heiner Müller’s nine-page theatrical text written in 1977, could be interpreted as a description of Hamlet’s current position. On the border between East and West, between the Peaceful Revolution in Eastern Europe and the old system that had claimed the implementation of socialism for itself. “If my drama were yet to occur, my place would be on both sides of the front line, between the fronts and above them.”