Dream of Hamlet

text by Ayhan Hülagü and Huseyin Sorgun, directed and performed by Ayhan Hülagü

The show’s thesis is as unlikely as it is rife with comic possibility. After moving to America and settling down there, Karagöz sets up a theatre with a close friend and decides to stage Shakespeare’s immortal piece of work. When the characters of Hamlet are reincarnated in different costumes and shapes in the style of a Karagöz performance, hilarity ensues: a colorful and robust piece of experimental theatre full of laughter, quick-witted humor and irony. In this lively show, the Anatolian puppet theatre Karagöz, a living tradition with 700 years of history, brings a modernist approach to Shakespeare’s signature play by re-imagining its characters and theme in an entirely different context.

Karagöz and Hamlet, the defining cultural hallmarks of two diametrically opposed traditions, come together on the same stage in this new play, thanks to the creative storytelling and boundless imagination of Ayhan Hülagü, a promising young artist living in the U.S.

All the characters in the play have been re-designed as two-dimensional puppets. As in the traditional shadow theatre, the figures representing characters are made of the leather of camel and water buffalo. They are adapted into the play after being painted with special tools. While presenting a modern story, Dream of Hamlet uses all the subtleties of traditional art. What distinguishes this special occasion is the fact that the entire play is performed by a single artist. With over 30 puppets in the show, this is no small feat!

Ayhan Hülagü is a journalist, actor and puppet master, having studied with one of Turkey’s last living Karagöz masters. since moving to the US, he founded the Karagöz Theater Company in Washington, DC.The show’s thesis is as unlikely as it is rife with comic possibility. After moving to America and settling down there, Karagöz sets up a theatre with a close friend and decides to stage Shakespeare’s immortal piece of work. When the characters of Hamlet are reincarnated in different costumes and shapes in the style of a Karagöz performance, hilarity ensues: a colorful and robust piece of experimental theatre full of laughter, quick-witted humor and irony. In this lively show, the Anatolian puppet theatre Karagöz, a living tradition with 700 years of history, brings a modernist approach to Shakespeare’s signature play by re-imagining its characters and theme in an entirely different context.

Karagöz and Hamlet, the defining cultural hallmarks of two diametrically opposed traditions, come together on the same stage in this new play, thanks to the creative storytelling and boundless imagination of Ayhan Hülagü, a promising young artist living in the U.S.

All the characters in the play have been re-designed as two-dimensional puppets. As in the traditional shadow theatre, the figures representing characters are made of the leather of camel and water buffalo. They are adapted into the play after being painted with special tools. While presenting a modern story, Dream of Hamlet uses all the subtleties of traditional art. What distinguishes this special occasion is the fact that the entire play is performed by a single artist. With over 30 puppets in the show, this is no small feat!

Ayhan Hülagü is a journalist, actor and puppet master, having studied with one of Turkey’s last living Karagöz masters. since moving to the US, he founded the Karagöz Theater Company in Washington, DC.