Rediscovering Hamlet

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, NOV. 28. 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 play premiered in Paris' famous Bouffes du Nord Theatre on Tuesday night to prolonged applause. As with every Peter Brook production, the cast is international, with British, Jamaican, Indian, Sri Lankan and American actors.

The applause was prolonged, enthusiastic, almost ecstatic. Hamlet is played with absolute brilliance by Adrian Lister, a young British actor of Jamaican origin, dreadlocks and all. He is swift, quicksilver, funny, sad, agile as a monkey and his interpretation of the melancholy prince is a departure from the wan, somewhat wimp-like figure Hamlet is usually made out to be. Lester also introduces a new element. His Hamlet at times appears to be genuinely mad, leaving the audience double guessing.

Once again Peter Brook's ties to India are evident. A thick, blood-red dhuree (similar to a thick hand-stitched godadi from Maharashtra or Saurashtra) which serves as the champ d'action, stands out starkly on the black stage. The props are minimal - a dozen or so cushions, two movable bunk seats and three Saurashtra hand-stitched 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.

Chloe Obolensky's hand is once again clearly visible in the costume and set design. The entire production manages to be at the same minimalist and extraordinarily rich.

Shantala Shivalingappa plays Ophelia, while Naseeruddin Shah is both Rosencrantz and the First Player. Once again Peter Brook's inventive genius is at work here. The entire player's speech in Act II Scene II about Queen Hecuba is now in Greek. Naseeruddin Shah intones it, almost like a prayer, as if he were calling upon invisible, greater forces. The speech, which would be difficult to understand for most theatre-goers uninstructed in mythological allegory, becomes mesmerising, suddenly taking on meaning despite the fact that its been said in Greek.

Bruce Myers makes an excellent Polonious and doubles as a most amusing, quick-witted grave digger. Natasha Parry as Gertrude is stately While Jeffrey Kissoon plays the wicked uncle Claudius as well as the Ghost.

Brook has compared Hamlet to a crystal ball turning in the air. Its facets, he says are infinite. The ball turns, and each rotation allows us to discover a new facet. We can always rediscover this play, make it live again, look for new truths therein. He gives us a new Hamlet, full of surprises, but which loses none of its produndity. He makes it more actual, universal, reminding us that Hamlet, as the embodiment of the human condition is inexhaustible, without limits.

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Section  : International
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