William Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Novelty on the Ukrainian Puppet Stage

Abstract

The article examines the first stage performances of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Ukrainian puppet theatres, which appeared as late as the twenty-first century. The authors examine productions by directors Oleksii Kravchuk (Lviv Academic Theatre of Variety Miniatures “Both People and Puppets”, Lviv, 2017), Oksana Dmitrieva (Viktor Afanasyev Kharkiv Academic Puppet Theatre, Kharkiv, 2018) and Nikita Pertsev (Zhytomyr Academic Puppet Theatre, Zhytomyr, 2021), which are characterized by an innovative combination of live action and puppetry. The article analyses the transformation of the performance idea, the construction of Hamlet in these performances, and scenographic solutions that reflect the characters’ internal conflicts and expand the boundaries of the tragedy.