Last weekend, I felt the urgent need to go out on a Saturday night and enjoy myself far away from the comforts of my couch. So, I knew I wanted to do something which wasn’t clubbing or eating out but I didn’t really know what that something was. Therefore, I did what every smart, young 21st-century woman would do: I googled it. I searched for events in Rostock on that Saturday and I have to say I was very surprised by the multitude of possibilities I found. It went from dance parties, over lots of concerts to stand-up comedy shows and finally theater plays. And this was where I stopped searching because I had figured out what I wanted to do that night; I wanted to watch a play. There was a group of four people belonging to the Compagnie de Comédie who performed Hamlet by William Shakespeare, or let’s say a variation of that, in the Klostergarten (abbey garden) which is located in Rostock’s city center. It’s a very small open-air theater which opens only during the summer season. They offer a bunch of plays and concerts over the summer.
Since I had never seen Hamlet or any other Shakespeare play performed live on stage, I was pretty much open to anything that night. And I think it was beneficial to not have expectation on a high-class tragedy performance which the original piece would suggest because that’s really not what it was. First of all, there were four male actors playing 12 roles. So, there was cross-dressing just like in Shakespeare’s time. The play was about two hours long so of course they had to cut out a lot of scenes but they definitely followed the basic story line of the play. All in all, it was pretty much turned into a comedy piece which was a smart thing to do for that occasion, place and audience. I don’t really want to go into the details because I don’t want to spoil anything. I had a very enjoyable evening with some good laughs and pleasant entertainment.
In my opinion, the prices are fair. You pay €17 for a regular ticket; students only pay €7. We bought the tickets online and had to pay a €1 printing fee on top.
What should also be mentioned is that the plays are in German. So, if you don’t speak any German, you probably won’t enjoy it as much, since you won’t get very much out of the stage and scenery because it’s very simple. Sorry about that.
If you wanna check out dates or different plays, have a look at the website.
I hope you’ll have a delightful time.