Thibault Perrenoud's itinerant 'Hamlet' puts actor and text center stage at Avignon Festival

For the 80th Festival d'Avignon, director Thibault Perrenoud presents an itinerant production of 'Hamlet' that tours villages around Avignon from July 8 to 25, 2026. The show uses a new French translation by Clément Camar-Mercier and features only three actors who play multiple roles. The premiere took place in Barbentane, where the audience sat around tables on a lawn, evoking the wedding feast of Gertrude and Claudius. The first part includes the feast scene; the second part transforms the tables into a central stage for the play-within-a-play. Perrenoud's approach is raw and transgressive, emphasizing excess and humor over poetry. The production is part of the festival's tradition of taking theater outside its walls to attract new audiences. The director's interpretation presents a decisive Hamlet who acts without doubt, sometimes at the expense of nuance. The translation is modern but loses some poetic dimension. The show relies on minimal means, with actors changing costumes quickly to embody different characters. Audience members are occasionally enlisted to play roles, such as the murderous king or the skull in the graveyard scene. The production is praised for returning the actor and text to the center of theatrical experience, in contrast to technology-heavy contemporary stagings.