Here then comes Hamlet!

The audience was mesmerised. The actors say they were transformed. Peter Brook's new adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", staged recently at the Bouffes du Nord theatre in Paris, was a phenomenon by itself. VAIJU NARAVANE writes on the production and the cast, and what made the play a cut above most others.

"NOTHING in the theatre has any meaning 'before' or 'after.' Meaning is 'now'. An audience comes to the theatre only for one reason - which is to live a certain experience, and, an experience can only take place at the moment it is experienced. When this is truly the case, the silence in a theatre changes its density and in every form of theatre, in all different traditions and all the different types of theatre all over the world you can see exactly the same phenomenon.

"An audience is composed of people whose minds are whirling - as they watch the event, sometimes this audience is touched - again we do not know what 'touched' means, except that it is a phenomenon. At first the audience isn't touched - why should it be? Then all of a sudden, something touches everyone. At the moment they are touched and phenomenon occurs. What has been up till then individual experiences becomes shared, unified. At the moment when the mass of people becomes one, there is silence and that silence you can taste on the tongue. It's a different silence from the ordinary silence that there is at the beginning of the performance and it is a silence that can, according to the quality that is lived by the actor, become an experience, that is of another quality for the audience, one which each person recognises. This shared recognition expresses itself through the increasing density of the same silence.

"Because of this, one can see that there is a mystery which has always been present in the nature of a theatre event. I think this must be linked to something very fascinating - the difference between drama and tragedy. Tragedy has a very special effect. If tragedy reaches the intensity we've just described, when the deepest of silences is produced in the audience, then the audience confronts the intense core of a living experience, and the audience leaves the theatre totally renewed."

The above, rather lengthy extract, is from the Ernest Jones Lecture given by Peter Brook on June 13, 1994 at London's Edward Lewis Theatre. I quote it here because it sums up the essence of what is happening, night after night, at Paris' Bouffes du Nord Theatre during the staging of Brook's new adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet". It is as if the audience were collectively holding its breath and the quality of the silence is both piercing and resounding.

The Bouffes du Nord is a very special theatre, rounded with tiered balconies and an ancient, golden-pink patina which seems to have absorbed a certain magical, theatric quality of its own from the scores of performances it has seen. The international cast blending different accents, physiques, skin tones make this "Hamlet" more universal, transcending the surface differences which divide us into races, cultures, peoples, reminding us that we experience identical emotions, the same joys and hatreds when faced with universal truths.

It's a "Hamlet" never seen before. Peter Brook's new adaptation of one of Shakespeare's most played tragedies is a work of dazzling economy and brilliance. The play has been reduced by half from its usual five-hour-plus length, making it both more accessible and modern, sharp and depouilli. The rounds of courtiers, lords and ladies in waiting have vanished.

Instead we are left with a cast of eight, six of whom play more than one role. Once again Peter Brook's ties to India are evident. A thick, blood-red dhuree (similar to a hand-stitched godadi from Maharashtra) which serves as the champ d'action stands out starkly on the black stage. The props are minimal - a dozen or so cushions, two moveable bunk seats and three Saurashtra quilted carpets which the actors move, drape and re- drape on the blood-red square to mark changes of scene and place. There is constant mobility and the audience is easily led into imagining bed chambers, lofty audience halls and throne rooms in the castle of Elsinore. Three upended cushions are suddenly transformed into poor Ophelia's grave. The entire production manages to be at the same time minimalist and extraordinarily rich. Musical support comes from various oriental instruments played by Peter Brook's long-time collaborator, the Japanese composer and musician, Toshi Tsuchitori.

"Hamlet" is Black and is in black, while Natashe Parry, stately as his mother, the queen, wears deep royal purple. Chloe Obolensky's unmistakable, trademark stamp is on the costumes and decor.

That Peter Brook's "Hamlet" is Black is of no consequence at all. Says Adrian Lester, the Jamaican-born, 32-year-old Birmingham lad who plays the melancholy prince: "Is theatre not an act of the imagination?"

It would be serious if skin colour blocked the imagination. Lester's Hamlet allows the possibility that the Prince of Denmark was, indeed, slightly touched in the head. Dreadlocks and all, he makes an unusual, immensely intense and lovable, Hamlet. He is swift as quicksilver, agile as a monkey. His interpretation of Hamlet, usually portrayed as wan, pallid, sorrowing and indecisive, is full of vitality and action. So, the moments of questioning, of sorrow and indecision are rendered all the more poignant, take on renewed strength. Lester left Hollywood to return to the stage.

"It's 'Hamlet', it's Paris, it's with Peter. Enough to make any actor come back to the stage," he says. Brook's understanding of acting and the mysterious processes that make up a theatrical event has actors in thrall. Says Naseeruddin Shah, who has the roles of The Player and of Rosencrantz, "Peter's knowledge of actors and people is immense. I know he's going to dislike my saying this, but he's a prophet. He's done so much actor-centred work that he knows instinctively when you need help. He lets you flounder for a while and then steps in. He makes you feel safe and it is very important for an actor to feel safe. No director in India has ever made me feel safe. As the Player I had to learn the long speech about Queen Hecuba in Act II, Scene II. I find it difficult to memorise lines and Peter had asked me to memorise both the original speech and the Greek with which he has replaced it in the play.

"To me the Greek made no sense at all and I found myself doing it all wrong. He let me sweat it out and then said :'Did you listen to prayers intoned as a child when you understood the message without understanding the meaning of the words?' He then told me that in the Greek Gra meant blood and that Loau means light. And that gave me the key I needed. Now, as I perform, that speech comes from within me, almost like a prayer. I can feel it reverberate through me and I feel myself becoming the instrument of something greater than myself." Naseeruddin Shah echoes the words of Adrian Lester when he says he could not contemplate turning down an offer from Brook. "I was expecting a bigger role and in the beginning I was disappointed. India had given me an inflated idea of myself and I needed this kick on my behind.

"I had to forget everything I was in India and it is precisely the lesson I needed. I had become smug and I was feeling stifled. But I knew I still had a lot left in me. What I needed was a guide and in India I had no guide. Even film makers I respect, like Shekhar Kapoor, Gulzar, fail to help the actor when he most needs them. This is an adventure from which I only stand to gain."

The Paris-based Kuchipudi dancer Shantala Shivalingappa who plays Ophelia has worked with Peter Brook before. Ten years ago, at the age of 14 she played Miranda in his staging of Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Her Ophelia has an innocent, untouched quality. "I had not read the play. I found the English difficult to tackle... it's so different from the way we speak and the language I know. But I was like a clean slate on which anything could be written and that was a great advantage. I did not bring any preconceived notion about who Ophelia is and what she should be. The connections Peter makes, the way he turns scenes around - we must have tried it in countless ways - is remarkable and wonderful. For me this has been an enriching, unforgettable experience. Dance is my passion and everything flows into my dance," she says.

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