Freud and Hamlet: Acoustic Encounters

A special theatre workshop, organised by The Freud Museum in partnership with Bournemouth University’s Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion and Social Justice (CESJ), and The Faction. Doors open at 5:30pm. Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet has been a source of inspiration for centuries of writers and thinkers, ever since it was first performance in 1600. Key to its success is the enigma surrounding the inability of the eponymous character to act on his intentions by taking revenge on his uncle Claudius for the murder of his father. For Freud, the play was a ‘Renaissance Oedipus Rex’, and Hamlet’s inhibition against taking action was not due to his philosophical frame of mind (being ‘sickled o’eer the pale of thought’), but rather his horror in seeing his own oedipal fantasies fulfilled. In this special theatre workshop, we will explore what the play might say to us today, both in relation to psychoanalysis and wider culture. Scenes from the play will be performed by actors from The Faction, under the direction of Mark Leipacher, and discussed in an open workshop format, facilitated by a Candida Yates, Roman Geridomos and Eva Makri. We will explore themes including the role of the soliloquay and it’s relation to transference in psychoanalysis, surveillance and paranoia. Audience members will be encouraged to participate in the discussion and shape the interpretation of selected scenes from the play.