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Hamlet and the Fall of the Berlin Wall: The Myth of Interventionist Shakespeare Performance

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Local and Global Myths in Shakespearean Performance

Part of the book series: Reproducing Shakespeare ((RESH))

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Abstract

The critical reception of Heiner Müller’s 1990 Hamlet/Maschine at the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin epitomizes a trend of crediting GDR Shakespeare performance with political influence. Drawing on rehearsal notes and reviews, Oliver challenges the interventionist Shakespeare myth, contrasting the Deutsches Theater’s political involvement with the impact of its Hamlet production on events surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall. Shakespeare’s capacity for political intervention at this point was limited by theater practitioners’ reliance on public funding, their close relationships with governmental authority, and an underlying distrust of the masses. Ultimately, GDR artists proved useful to the 1989 protest movement because they occupied a unique position at the interface of dissidence and power.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Emily Oliver

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  1. Emily Oliver
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Aneta Mancewicz

  2. George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Alexa Alice Joubin

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Oliver, E. (2018). Hamlet and the Fall of the Berlin Wall: The Myth of Interventionist Shakespeare Performance. In: Mancewicz, A., Joubin, A. (eds) Local and Global Myths in Shakespearean Performance. Reproducing Shakespeare. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89851-3_8

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