Ostermeier at work [2]

Many Shakespearean plays begin with a character coming on stage and informing the audience that he or she is now going to be somebody else: from now on, the author not the one he was before'. For an actor in a rehearsal space who has to find his or her way into the dramatic situation, and who feels blocked and restrained by the pressure to be truthful to this situation, it will be an act of liberation when the director is able to reassure them: do not even think about being truthful to the situation. Many of Shakespeare's characters hide their true identity, and they are playing all the time. The world of Shakespeare thus is a world where language is a beautiful and incredibly powerful weapon. Both types of characters exist in Shakespeare's plays: the ones who manipulate the truth, like Iago or Richard III, but the ones who want to find the truth, like Hamlet and Duke Vincentio.