Globe To Globe: Shakespeare's Hamlet In Dhaka
It was indeed a great opportunity for theatre goers in Dhaka to watch "Hamlet" being staged in front of their eyes by none other than Shakespeare's own troupe, Globe Theatre.
The London-based theatre company, dating back four centuries, travelled to Bangladesh on an invitation from Dhaka Theatre to stage "Hamlet" as part of its world tour marking Shakespeare's 450th birth anniversary.
As termed by Globe Theatre itself, the play that we saw was a young, fresh and lucid version of "Hamlet". And upon watching the play, jointly directed by Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst, one could say that it was fair.
It was indeed a clear, fast-paced and unusually funny adaptation of "Hamlet", considered to be one of the greatest tragedies ever penned.
Sometimes it was beyond just fair, and at times, the actions on the stage seemed to cross the border of unusually funny to become unnecessarily funny.
As opposed to the seriousness that a Shakespearean tragedy generally offers, the touring version of Hamlet is rather free-flowing and more accessible than the written book.
The dialogues were lucid and one can vouch that the audience barely misunderstood what was happening on the stage.
However, there were many things that did not work. One did not simply want the protagonist to be a goofy young prince; instead, Hamlet ought to have been the anxious prince of Denmark, worried over his father's death at the hands of his uncle who later became the king and married Hamlet's mother. He was expected to be engulfed in the horrors of life and death manifest.
Also, some of the scenes were afflicted by trivialisation and turned rather bland instead of achieving the comedic impact.
We saw a weirdly neutral Claudius and a merely incapable Polonius. The scene where Hamlet killed Polonius behind the arras was weakly staged. Also, there was no spark in the performance of Nayeem Hayat as Hamlet. His acting seemed a bit disconnected and his face was lacking the angst that was supposed to be visible in the prince's face. However, Ophelia did well in her small role, while Gertrude was very lively on the stage.
What was admirable was the production's clarity. And what truly worked were multiple roles played by most of the actors, aside from doubling as musicians.
The stage design was minimalistic with only steamer trunks kept on the stage, and the stage light was simple with no artificiality. Surprisingly, the house lights remained up so that the audience had the flavour of sitting in Shakespeare's Globe.
The actors skilfully articulated the rhythm of Shakespearean speech to show the outburst of emotion and highlight the poetic quality of the text.
Above all, the show was entertaining and fresh. And it was clear that we were watching a group of travelling actors carrying "Hamlet" on their backs to every country of the world within a timeframe of two years.
They enchanted us with their liveliness, humour and folk song. If we put aside its flaws, the production was indeed once-in-a-lifetime experience for the Dhaka audience. And when it ended, Globe Theatre was rewarded with standing ovation and a big round of applause.
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