ART
(HH) Hamlet House - A Play In Progress
/ Thom Donovan
06.07.09
(HH) hamlet house
Lilac Co and St Johns Theater
at Warsaw, Greenpoint, Bklyn May 28th, 2009
In Lilac Co and St Johns Theater’s program for their work-in-progress, (HH) hamlet house, performed May 28th, 2009 at the Warsaw theater in Greenpoint Brooklyn, the group uses the term “zones of autonomy” to describe their most recent production. In Hakim Bey’s T.A.Z. (Temporary Autonomous Zone), “temporary autonomous zone” refers to a space in which a political structure is challenged not through a direct attack—that is, not through a direct confrontation with an actual power structure or political apparatus—but through clandestine actions and the creation of spaces that exist beyond the mediation of governmental and corporate forces. Right now, such zones are as badly needed as ever, and it is through independent theater and other community-based art formations that they may be created.
It is appropriate that Lilac Co and St Johns Theater should take-up Bey’s term through a version of Hamlet. In Shakespeare’s original play, it is the structure of the law itself that is called radically into question—both the law of the family and of the state. Through the murder of Hamlet’s father there is an initial rupture in the structure of the law, a rupture indicated by Hamlet’s declaration that “time is out of joint.” Through the usurping of the throne by Hamlet’s mother and uncle there is another rupture, and by Hamlet’s plotting of revenge against them yet another. Amidst the drama of Hamlet, Ophelia’s voice is muffled by the primary action of the play. To say Ophelia is marginalized is an understatement, given Shakespeare’s portrayal of Ophelia as both whore and venerated object.
Lilac Co and St Johns Theater
at Warsaw, Greenpoint, Bklyn May 28th, 2009
In Lilac Co and St Johns Theater’s program for their work-in-progress, (HH) hamlet house, performed May 28th, 2009 at the Warsaw theater in Greenpoint Brooklyn, the group uses the term “zones of autonomy” to describe their most recent production. In Hakim Bey’s T.A.Z. (Temporary Autonomous Zone), “temporary autonomous zone” refers to a space in which a political structure is challenged not through a direct attack—that is, not through a direct confrontation with an actual power structure or political apparatus—but through clandestine actions and the creation of spaces that exist beyond the mediation of governmental and corporate forces. Right now, such zones are as badly needed as ever, and it is through independent theater and other community-based art formations that they may be created.
It is appropriate that Lilac Co and St Johns Theater should take-up Bey’s term through a version of Hamlet. In Shakespeare’s original play, it is the structure of the law itself that is called radically into question—both the law of the family and of the state. Through the murder of Hamlet’s father there is an initial rupture in the structure of the law, a rupture indicated by Hamlet’s declaration that “time is out of joint.” Through the usurping of the throne by Hamlet’s mother and uncle there is another rupture, and by Hamlet’s plotting of revenge against them yet another. Amidst the drama of Hamlet, Ophelia’s voice is muffled by the primary action of the play. To say Ophelia is marginalized is an understatement, given Shakespeare’s portrayal of Ophelia as both whore and venerated object.