Edinburgh International Festival 2024
Low Down
There’s a lot of warmth and joy watching this play. The ensemble discuss things out in the open as actors about what is acting and when the lights come back up Alvaro gets the crown and does his version of the to be or not to be speech very effectively in a rap of his own words. It is the essence of Shakespeare’s famous speech and utterly sublime!
Review
A wide open stage with set pieces and props to the extreme right and left and one actor centre stage watches a film projected on a huge screen of a baby being born. One by one the seven other members of Teatro La Plaza company come and watch.
Who’s there? Characters in the dark with torches call out as they walk through the fog. We see Hamlet’s father’s ghost speaking – a horrible crime was committed!
The lights come up and we meet the cast wearing multicolored street clothes. They introduce themselves and share that they will each do their best and speak clearly. Teatro La Plaza from Peru has tackled Shakespeare’s plays before in different creative versions and pushing boundaries. Spoken in Spanish with English surtitles Hamlet is made up of a cast of eight actors who have Down’s Syndrome. This Hamlet is written and directed by Chela De Ferrari,
Who is Hamlet? The episodic titles appear on the screen and an actor called Jaime declares himself Jaimelet who answers questions as the prince of Denmark while the rest of the cost sit around the stage in different groupings. The staging from beginning to the end of the play is very inventive and adds to the feel of community this company of actors wants to create. Hamlet/Jaimelet talks of being in love and he is part of the Peruvian Down Association Society where he met his sweet girlfriend.
The actors are doing their own version of Hamlet and it follows all of the characters and events in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, except they put it in their own words and in their own stories, connecting things from their own lives. The cast also answers several questions that are asked by the public about Down’s Syndrome. For example one actor asks what would happen if you had a child with Down’s Syndrome? Another actor asks for applause and the audience does so obligingly – he then says he is afraid of ending up lonely.
There is a narrator who sets upscenes and tells stories that range between and touching.
A scene with three actors act out Polonious, Queen Gertrude and Hamlet when Hamlet becomes angry because his parents want to introduce him to a new suitor – first the parents hide amongst a clothes rack when Hamlet arrives with a toy dog in tow. There’s a lot of humour and irony in these innovative scenes that are brilliantly, conceived, crafted, and directed by De Ferrari.
The get the to nunnery scene is poignant when Ophelia is surprised and shocked in a very dramatic scene. A video moves the story along between Ophelia and Hamlet effectively. There is a microphone stand on stage and now and again actors talk to other characters through it in other moving moments such as when Ophelia‘s father tells her about being a special girl born with an extra chromosome, which is both tender and humorous. That this is why she has difficulties and that her parents know best and to trust them.
Sometimes there are interesting questions or minor disagreements from the cast as they tackle the events, characters and their relationships in Hamlet. An example is the To be or not to be speech when one actor told us they would re-create a rehearsal of this existential crisis question What follows is a speedy film montage of many actors doing the to be or not to be speech and then he shouts, NO! because he has seven questions for a famous actor who has played Hamlet more than once. Then we watch a brief video of this interview with Sir Ian McKellen, which was absolutely fascinating!.
There’s a lot of warmth and joy watching this play. the ensemble discuss things out in the open as actors about what is acting and when the lights come back up Alvaro gets the crown and does his version of the to be or not to be speech very effectively in a rap of his own words – it is the essence of Shakespeare’s famous speech and utterly sublime!
The story follows Shakespeare’s Hamlet with very creative diversions. This cast has fun with other scenes in twos, threes or as an ensemble, in interactive scenes with the audience – in a wonderful scene with trees which is creative and charming.
The actors tell us their own stories, their hopes, their dreams and their fears, and let us know that they understand that they have challenges, but make a very moving point that they want to make their own decisions and follow their own dreams.
