Lee Hyon-u's Hamlet Q1 and Pedagogical Performance on the Korean Stage: Textual Identity in Intercultural Theatre

This paper examines the first Korean incarnation of the First Quarto of Hamlet, Lee Hyon-u's Hamlet Q1 (2009), by analyzing the challenges and opportunities attending its production. Hamlet Q1 signals a dramaturgical and conceptual shift from the melancholic Hamlets often framed in contexts of Korean shamanism to the unconventionally active Hamlet of the quarto of 1603. The production enlivens textual scholarship and fills a pedagogical void by propagating the idea of "multiple-text plays" to Lee's student-based audience. The indigenization of Lee's Hamlet Q1 is a form of contextual translation that facilitates understanding of Hamlet's original cultural contexts.