Postmodernism

Hamletmachine written by Heiner Müller's (1977)

Hamletmachine is a play loosely related to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The play is filled with death. There are number of scenes where Muller picks death as a theatrical act. A scene in Hamletmachine, Hamlet enters the University of the Dead and sees bodies hanging from the rafters which Hamlet sees them as exhibits in a museum. In another scene, Ofelia destroys everything she owns and walks through the streets drenched in her own blood for everyone to see. Hamlet also discusses the death of society. He states the government never meets the needs of its people and eventually the people rebel. The government then takes action to protect itself no matter the cost even the cost of life. Hamlet describes a soldier and the machine gun turret he holds as a man who is empty and feels nothing. Hamlet feels that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a man and wants to be a woman to hide from what the world expects from him.

This machine gun represents a soldier under the machine gun turret as a man who is empty underneath the helmet as portrayed by Muller in Hamletmachine.

Muller was describing communism in Germany in his play Hamletmachine, but can be applied to us today. Society can destroy people with demands and stereotypes. Which eventually leads to conflict and a war with society begins.

Buried Child written by Sam Shepard (1979)

Buried Child is about a family living in Midwestern farmhouse. Dodge and Halie are married and have three sons. Dodge is a clan leader and is not a model husband. Halie is disconnected with her husband and only remembers the good times she had with him. Their oldest son Tilden loves his mom, but that love turns into incest where she bares a son. Dodge eventually drowns and buries the baby behind their farmhouse. Dodge later becomes a drunk, Halie turns to religion for comfort and Tilden went insane for what he did. He returns back to the farmhouse to make things right.

This farmhouse was the inspiration for the set of the play Buried Child. It was behind this farmhouse that the character, Dodge, drowned and buried a baby boy who was

This rosary was used on the set of Buried Child. It was Halie's rosary she used when she turned to religion to help cleanse her of her past acts.