Hamletmachine is not centered on a conventional plot, but is partially unified through sequences of monologues in which the protagonist leaves his role and reflects on being an actor.
The production of Hamletmachine was described as "a stage teeming with images" and "an electrifying message from East Germany" by Nicholas De Jongh in The Guardian.
In 1992, the play was presented by the University of California, Irvine, directed by Keith Fowler, as a bloody fantasy set in a "Frankenstein laboratory," in which industrial meat hooks served to "float" Ophelia.
In 2002, the Los Angeles Times published a 35-year retrospective of cutting edge art "on the wilder side," and UC Irvine's Hamletmachine was one of five "bloodiest" events listed.
[10] Hamletmachine has had various adaptations in other media: Opheliamachine, a postmodernist response to Heiner Mueller's Hamletmachine by the Polish-born American playwright and dramaturg Magda Romanska, premiered to critical acclaim at City Garage Theatre in Santa Monica, CA in 2013, opened at the Berliner Ensemble in Germany on September 30, 2022, and was published in nine languages by Bloomsbury in 2024.