Program

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Hamlet

Words from the director

Welcome to Hamlet, one of William Shakespeare’s most beloved and explored works.

Though I’m bound by the centuries of tradition surrounding Hamlet, it also allows me the freedom to continue to explore the play further. To constantly rework, reinterpret and rediscover Hamlet has become part of its tradition.

I have been particularly fascinated by this tragedy ever since the first time I read it. The young Prince Hamlet faces a choice: avenge his father’s murder, urged on by his father’s ghost; or remain passive and live with the consequences of betrayal and injustice. It’s a story where moral questions don’t have simple answers, and I have often found myself reflecting on how this fact remains just as relevant in today’s society.

When I hear the famous monologue “To be or not to be,” I feel a profound sense of human vulnerability. I can sense the existential weight Hamlet carries, the timeless question of what it truly means to live and to act, or to not act. It’s a play that, despite its age, always manages to remind me of our shared human dilemmas. What do we do when we find ourselves at a moral crossroad? How far are we willing to go for the sake of justice, to protect our loved ones?

It’s not merely the grand themes of the play that make Hamlet so special to me. It’s also the small, intimate moments – Hamlet’s relationship with his mother, his desperate love for Ophelia, and his doubts about the world around him. These personal moments give depth to the great questions the play poses and turn it into a journey, not only through a political tragedy, but also through the darkest corners of the human soul.

Welcome to Hamlet—a performance that, just like life itself, offers everything from bitter sorrow to fleeting moments of clarity, and always leaves us with more to ponder.

Dritëro Kasapi
Director

Creative team

Dritëro Kasapi

Director

Dritëro Kasapi

Dritëro Kasapi is a director from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Macedonia. He has 20 years of experience as a director with around 40 productions in Sweden and across Europe. Since 2018, he has also been the theatre director and artistic leader at Riksteatern in Sweden.

Annika Bromberg

Set & costume designer

Annika Bromberg

In our interpretation of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s words become a megaphone that echoes across the corridors of time. The big emotions, then as now, are deeply rooted in our souls. The stage, with its actors, scenography, costumes, lighting and sound, functions as a messenger, raising eternal themes of love, hate and having the courage to make your voice heard in a world where “fake news” can no longer be distinguished from the truth. Who can you trust?

Annika Bromberg is an experienced freelance scenographer and costume designer. Since 2021, she holds a five-year assignment as a scenographer at Folkteatern Gävleborg. Together with Dritëro Kasapi, Annika has created several notable theatre productions over two decades.

Tommi Saviranta

Lightning designer

Tommi Saviranta

I’m flattered by the opportunity to do my first theatre piece as a lighting designer for the classic of the classics, Hamlet, on the Main Stage of Svenska Teatern that oozes with history. Hamlet was also my first theatre piece as a lighting operator. It premiered in 2012. Now, 12 years later, I finally got the chance to illuminate Hamlet in my own style, and I’m extremely excited about it.

A Helsinki-based freelance lighting designer. Lighting, their design and programming is my passion. I mainly work as a lighting operator at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet, but I do all kinds of work related to lights whenever the opportunity arises. In addition to theatre, I’ve gained experience with lighting circus productions, TV productions, live music and various events.

Hanna Mikander

Sound designer

Hanna Mikander

In Hamlet, the relationship between the younger and the older generation is something that resonates strongly with me and touches on things that young people struggle with today. Both Hamlet and Ophelia feel betrayed by their parents. With their life experience and wisdom, they should be role models for the young, but instead, their behaviour is selfish and manipulative. Hamlet can’t even trust his best friends but notices that their mindsets differ too. So what happens when people close to you let you down and the future feels hopeless? You lose your footing. In the case of Hamlet and Ophelia, this has fateful consequences.

I have worked as a sound designer at Svenska Teatern for 16 years and done stints at, e.g., Stockholm City Theatre, Åbo Svenska Teater, Lilla Teatern and Viirus. In addition to my work as a sound designer, I compose, arrange and produce music for performances.

Tiitta Stoor

Hair and makeup designer

Tiitta Stoor

I’m very happy to contribute to the team as a make-up designer and be involved in bringing this world-renowned classic play to the stage. Hamlet adapts to every era and depicts people at their most vulnerable, wretched, revengeful and as being capable of extreme deeds.

I began working in the theatre 30 years ago. I first joined the Finnish National Opera, and from 2008, worked as a freelancer in film productions, music theatre, TV productions and at Svenska Teatern. Since 2015, I have been a permanent make-up artist and hair stylist here at Svenska Teatern. Nowadays I’m also a make-up designer and make-up supervisor.

Actors

Sonia Haga

Ofelia

Sonia Haga

Ophelia is the sister of Laertes and daughter of Polonius

Describe your character
A strong-willed young fighter

Jesper Fransson

Hamlet

Jesper Fransson

Describe your character

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, mourns for his recently deceased father. He feels let down by her mother who does not grieve but has moved on with her life. To top it off, she has married, and not just anyone, but her husband’s brother.

Patrick Henriksen

Rosencrantz

Patrick Henriksen

Rosencrantz is a childhood friend of Hamlet.

Describe your character
Rosencrantz tries to play on everyone’s team but plays himself out.
He wants to be on everyone’s side, but the only one who is on his side is Guildenstern. Deep inside, he thinks that everything was better back in the day.

Dennis Nylund

Gyldenstern, Laertes

Dennis Nylund

Gyldenstern is a childhood friend of Hamlet. Laertes is the brother of Ophelia and son of Polonius.

Describe your character
Laertes. A man with a big heart but even bigger shortcomings.

Sophia Heikkilä

Queen Gertrude

Sophia Heikkilä

Queen Gertrud is the mother of Hamlet

Describe your character
Gertrude of Denmark seems like an ambitious and callous queen, but is she driven by pure selfishness or by unconditional love for her son Hamlet, that is the question…

Mikael Andersson

Polonius

Mikael Andersson

Polonius is the chief counsellor of Claudius and father to Ophelia and Laertes.

Describe your character
A political player. Despite talking your ear off, he is sly and cunning. He does it to keep his family together and to ensure their survival. But also to keep himself in power.

Mitja Sirén

The actor, Osric

Mitja Sirén

Describe your character

The actor considers himself to be the best actor, a master of conveying emotions, regardless of the genre of the play.

Through his actions, he challenges Hamlet’s thoughts about the events and inner feelings.

Niklas Åkerfelt

King Claudius

Niklas Åkerfelt

Claudius is the brother of the King and second husband to Gertrude.

Describe your character

Claudius is the new king, and he is drunk on power and glory.

He enjoys his new existence, an existence that until recently was lived in the shadow of his brother, the old king. But something is nagging him, fear, paranoia, guilt…
It is both a rewarding and challenging role for an actor – you get to explore an incredibly wide range of expressions.

Hamlet

There is something magical about theaters

I love the feeling of entering a theater—just being there and soaking in the atmosphere. I don’t know what it feels like for a believer in their place of worship, but I imagine it’s a similar feeling to the one I experience when I’m at the theater. As I write this, we have just had our first rehearsal of Hamlet on stage. So far, we have been rehearsing in a different space. Now, standing there and seeing the set in place on stage for the first time, I realize: “Yes, this is really happening. There will be a performance of this!”

Imagine being a theater lover and getting to perform this play in this theater. I have the privilege of playing the role of Hamlet in the play of the same name. I am very well aware of how rare this opportunity is.

Although this is by far the most challenging and demanding work I’ve done in my short time as a professional actor, it is also among the most enjoyable. Perhaps not always enjoyable in the “haha” sense, at least not on stage, but there are plenty of laughs off stage. It is precisely this that allows me to appreciate, realize, feel, and enjoy this privilege I have been given. I have wonderful colleagues—not just fellow actors and the director, but everyone else too, from the makeup artists and costume designers to stagehands, prop masters, artistic planners, and so on. If they hadn’t been so helpful and kind, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy this project as much.

So… what is it like to play the role of Hamlet? On the whole, it’s exactly the same work I do to fulfill this role as with any other. The text needs to be hammered in, and the intentions, subtexts, settings, and the right tone must be tested and explored. Some days, you fumble in the dark; other days, you see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s heavy, difficult, stressful, and challenging. As a freelance actor, I live with a constant worry about potential future unemployment (especially in these times with the current government and the cutbacks taking place), and if I were never to get another acting job again, I will always be able to look back and think, yes, I actually got to play Hamlet. In this theater. With these colleagues.

In short:

A privilege few get, and I am very grateful.

Jesper Fransson,

Actor

Production photos