‘A questionable shape’: Anatomising Hamlet in Gertrude (Radu F. Alexandru/Silviu Purcărete, 2023)

In 2023, Silviu Purcărete engaged with William Shakespeare's Hamlet at the National Theatre in Bucharest through the mediation of a Romanian adaptation, Radu F. Alexandru's Gertrude (2012). In Purcărete's vision, Elsinore appeared as a burlesque, corrupt yet playful universe where a family drama unfolded under the eyes of a voyeuristic spectator. This article argues that by multiplying its self-conscious theatrical devices the production also reflected on the status of the adaptation, as a mediated, fragmented access to the work, mirroring the director's puzzlement with Shakespeare's tragedy.