Asta Nielsen’s HAMLET
a green screen seance
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Hamlet: The Drama of Vengeance is a 1921 film starring and produced by silent screen legend Asta Nielsen, with Nielsen as a regendered, female Hamlet, a secret princess masquerading as a prince. For the past several years, Invulnerable Nothings have been creating "a green screen seance" around this largely forgotten early film masterpiece, a not entirely faithful, extraordinarily loving, LIVE recreation of this weird and wonderful film, a complex 60 minute dance between a camera operator (Irene Gomez-Emilsson) and two actors (founding artistic associates Kristin Winters and Vincent Santvoord).
Over an hour, this live multimedia work restages, shot for shot, Danish film star Asta Nielsen’s remarkable turn as Hamlet, reviving a landmark regendered adaptation. This piece is conceived/ directed by C.C. Kellogg and stars Croatian-British actor Kristin Winters as Asta Nielsen. Winters painstakingly recreates Nielsen’s silent film performance via green screen and simulcast as her image is live fed into a scrubbed version of the existing film, performed and screened for a live audience, with the support of Santvoord and Gomez-Emilsson.
In October 2023, a work in progress sharing of the piece appeared at The Coronet Theatre in London with the support of RADA, broadcast live from New Stage in Manhattan. It was captured thanks to Case + Porter and featured Winters and Vincent Santvoord. The project was also developed throughout Sept/Oct 2022 at The Studio in Bath/ Bath Spa University, with the help of camera operator Irene Gomez-Emilsson, and with Alida Delaney, Sophie Dushko, Lauren Guglielmello, George Olesky, and Vincent Santvoord at Mercury Store in July 2022. Early experimentation into the work took place at InvulNos’ Barn Lab in 2021. It will premier summer 2024 and tour throughout 2025.