Our Vision
Hamlet will be staged at Mycelium Studios, a multidisciplinary creative studio and co-working hub. Our stage design will integrate the existing concrete pillars of the venue to capitalise on the brutalist textures and re-create our Royal Castle of Elsinore. The seating design will feature an innovative semi-circular, multi entry / exit point layout for the actors to perform, at times, amongst the audience. This production will also feature quadrophonic sound, a modular set and digital projections.
Mycelium Studios seeks to develop community and improve the environment through design thinking and the creative process. They are distinguished by a multidisciplinary team of designers, thinkers, artists, musicians and software engineers. Methodical in their approach to project management, Mycelium has worked in collaboration with AVID Theatre & Ardour Theatre to leverage intuition and inspiration to guide the theatrical creative process.
Is Hamlet a thrilling ghost story? An exuberant romp about theatre and actors? A harrowing dissection of an abusive relationship? An introspective meditation on our very existence? A black comedy about the nature of mortality? Is it a drama of revenge and betrayal? Or is it an adventure story about pirates?
It's all of these things.
AVID Theatre and Ardour Theatre have assembled a stellar creative team who have been tasked with the wonderful challenge of wrestling these seemingly disparate elements into a complete experience.
Director, Nicholas Opolski, is no stranger to the text, having performed the title role for Adelaide’s Independent Theatre in 1999. Nick brings a vigorous and muscular intent to this interpretation and states:
“We watch Hamlet because at times we have felt like him: conflicted in our motives and unsure of our next step. Victim, yes, but also guilty. Hamlet struggles to understand his place in a confused world, as we sometimes do, but shows us how, in spite of everything, it is possible to find peace of mind. My Hamlet, Michael Fenemore, and I began talking about all of these strands a year ago, and I don't expect the conversation to finish when the season is over. The play does that to you.”