Fri. Dec. 18 - Sun. Dec. 20

    Though clearly one his best known and most discussed plays, William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is also one of his longest. And while the recent Orfeo Group production of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” brilliantly turned this epic exploration of a Danish depressive into five minutes of fast-paced frivolity, there may be other ways to edit and use the original play while keeping the serious tone more intact.

   Among the efforts to do so are Heiner Müller’s “Hamletmachine,” which will be presented by the The American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training December 18-20 at the Loeb Drama Center.
    In this eight-page adaptation, Müller uses the familiar characters from the timeless text in a new story that explores more contemporary problems and that focuses more on the original sub-plot love story between the self-doomed lovers Hamlet and Ophelia. Taking its title from a quote by Pop artist Andy Warhol, “Hamletmachine” also refers to Hamlet’s internal conflict and his desire to be his own boss rather than the puppet of his dead father.

     This production of “Hamletmachine” is being directed by Marcus Stern (in photo, human) who also directed the Eliot Norton Award-winning “Endgame,” as well as “Donnie Darko” and “The Onion Cellar,” the ART’s experimental piece that featured the Dresden Dolls.   “I originally found 'Hamletmachine' while in graduate school at Yale,” Stern recalls. “It immediately intrigued me because it seemed like it had such visceral heartache and anger, and it was an incredibly hard puzzle to solve theatrically.”
      Having already produced it as part of his thesis dissertation at Yale, Stern is looking forward to bringing the story to the Institute’s graduate students.“Because the Institute is trying to create a more parallel season with the ART's season,” Stern explains, “Ryan McKittrick, our resident dramaturg, suggested that 'Hamletmachine' might fit well into the Shakespeare Exploded festival.”

   As he was so interested in the text and as it did fit so well into the ART’s avant garde celebration of the Bard, Stern revived the play for a new stage. “I agreed to do it, both because I think the text is genuinely interesting,” he says, “and because it is such a difficult text that we all thought it would be a worthwhile project for the graduate students to work on.”

   “Hamletmachine” is up at the Loeb Drama Center Friday and Saturday at 7:30 and 10, and Sunday at 7:30pm. Tickets: $10 for the general public; $5 for students, andseniors, free to A.R.T. subscribers.

(Contributed by Matt Robinson)

64 Brattle St., Cambridge, 617-547-8300 www.amrep.org