Skip to main content

Hamlet

Lyceum Theatre

Four stars 

Edinburgh International Festival has seen many Hamlets over the decades. Few, however, have resembled this audacious reimagining of Shakespeare’s play from Peru’s Teatro La Plaza that arrived in town this week. Rather than wallow in the existential crisis of the bard’s sulky Danish teen, writer and director Chela De Ferrari uses the play as a springboard for eight actors with Down syndrome to pass the crown around in order to give voice to their own inner desires. 

 

After lining up to explain to the audience that they might take their time with their lines, the octet launch into a melee that takes in personal stories, filmed sequences and rap. There are even on screen cameos from Ian McKellen and Laurence Olivier, before a final punky explosion sees the cast celebrate their differences in glorious fashion.

 

Performed in Spanish with English surtitles, with input from associate directors and playwrights Jonathan Oliveros, Claudia Tangoa and Luis Alberto León, and pulsed along by a jaunty recorded score, lights are frequently turned up on the audience for direct engagement. 

 

At one point volunteers are invited on stage to join in the visiting players scene. Those keen to take part are given minor roles, clutching bits of twigs as they become little more than scenery, while it is the Teatro La Plaza cast who get to play the leads. This telling reversal of power speaks volumes about how Down syndrome actors are more usually sidelined in much the same way as the audience are here. Beyond the fun and games, this is the very serious point being made here. 

 

The sense of ensemble community at play throughout the show is vital. Octavio Bernaza, Jaime Cruz, Lucas Demarchi, Manuel García, Diana Gutierrez, Cristina León Barandiarán, Ximena Rodríguez and Álvaro Toledo all rise to the occasion. 

 

The ending, as the entire audience are invited on stage to dance, more resembles the encore of a Belle and Sebastian gig than a Shakespearean tragedy, making for an exhilarating piece of serious fun. 


The Herald, August 17th 2024

 

ends

 

 

 

 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Myra Mcfadyen - An Obituary

Myra McFadyen – Actress   Born January 12th 1956; died October 18th 2024   Myra McFadyen, who has died aged 68, was an actress who brought a mercurial mix of lightness and depth to her work on stage and screen. Playwright and artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, David Greig, called McFadyen “an utterly transformative, shamanic actor who could change a room and command an audience with a blink”. Citizens’ Theatre artistic director Dominic Hill described McFadyen’s portrayal of Puck in his 2019 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London as “funny, mischievous and ultimately heartbreaking.”   For many, McFadyen will be most recognisable from Mamma Mia!, the smash hit musical based around ABBA songs. McFadyen spent two years on the West End in Phyllida Lloyd’s original 1999 stage production, and was in both film offshoots. Other big screen turns included Rob Roy (1995) and Our Ladies (2019), both directed by Mi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Passage – Hip Rebel Degenerates: Black, White and Red All Over

Prelude – The Power of Three   Fear. Power. Love. This life-and-death (un)holy trinity was the driving force and raisons d’être of The Passage, the still largely unsung Manchester band sired in what we now call the post-punk era, and who between 1978 and 1983 released four albums and a handful of singles.    Led primarily by composer Dick Witts, The Passage bridged the divide between contemporary classical composition and electronic pop as much as between the personal and the political. In the oppositional hotbed of Margaret Thatcher’s first landslide, The Passage fused agit-prop and angst, and released a song called Troops Out as a single. The song offered unequivocal support for withdrawing British troops from Northern Ireland.    They wrote Anderton’s Hall, about Greater Manchester’s born again right wing police chief, James Anderton, and, on Dark Times, rubbed Brechtian polemic up against dancefloor hedonism. On XOYO, their most commercial and potentially mo...
Post a Comment
Read more