Hamlet Diagnosis
Original title: Diagnóstico: Hamlet
Trailer
Synopsis
Max Flaubert, a young man, has been committed to a psychiatric hospital after his father's death and his mother's hasty marriage to his uncle. Locked in his room, he builds a private world out of life-sized puppets that take over his mind — a troubled man, his mother, a young woman — and force him to relive his trauma again and again through the words of Shakespeare's Hamlet. A single performer, Miquel Gallardo, plays the patient and manipulates the three figures, so that the puppets seem to speak for themselves and to rule over him. The Catalan company Pelmànec premiered the piece on 30 June 2011 at the Clásicos en Alcalá festival.
Context & Trivia
The three life-sized puppets were designed by Aitor Herrero and Martí Doy and built by Martí Doy; Miquel Gallardo, who adapted Shakespeare's text, manipulates all of them alone while playing the patient, under the direction of María Castillo. The company reused the format of its earlier Don Juan, memoria amarga de mí, in which a single actor faces life-sized figures. Critics noted that the puppets stop reading as mechanical objects and become autonomous characters who appear to control the protagonist. Set by Xavier Erra, costumes by Rosa Soler, lighting by Xavier Muñoz, video by Marco Domenichetti. The piece toured to MadFeria 2013, the 10th Shakespeare Festival in Barcelona (2013) and the Festival International des Arts de la Marionnette in Saguenay, Quebec (2015).
Puppeteers
Miquel Gallardo
Puppet design
Aitor Herrero, Martí Doy
Puppet companies
Companyia Pelmànec
Puppet building
Martí Doy
Direction
María Castillo
Writing
Miquel Gallardo, William Shakespeare
Cast
Miquel Gallardo
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