Hamlet in Pieces - Hardcover

"A highly literate guide to theatrical postmodernism and the latest trends in avant-garde showmanship .Lavender's grasp of mise-en-scene is all-embracing. It makes what he says about these innovators all the more astute and convincing." American Book Review

Between 1995 and 1996, three highly unusual shows were produced by three celebrated figures in world theatre: "Qui Est La", directed by Peter Brook; "Elsinore", directed by Robert Lepage; and "Hamlet - A Monologue", directed by Robert Wilson. Each was a version - at least in part - of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", although none treated the show in anything like an orthodox manner. This book is in part about theatre direction at a time when directorial practices are in a state of transition, but it is also about these interpretations of Shakespeare's "Hamlet". In the words of Lavender, "the coincidence of these three approaches seemed too good to miss". In writing this book, he set out to find out how the shows were made, wanting to demystify the process in order to reveal the working practices of the three directors, as well as to adddress issues of theatre-making more generally. The author seeks to discover what made three of the leading directors in international theatre turn to Shakespeare's play at the same time. Each of the three productions examined found the themes of incest, madness, fratricide, contemplation and play-action in "Hamlet" especially modern. Taken together, they might suggest a late-20th-century fascination with the existential and psychological strands of the play, and with the business of being theatrical. This points towards the resonance of "Hamlet" at a millennial moment, but the contiguity of the three productions also speaks for the processes by which they were made and, Lavender argues, offers larger insight into turn-of-the-millennium theatre.