Hamlet dies, Ophelia dies, Gertrude dies, Claudius dies
How could you make this funny? As it turns out, by the end of the evening, the audience were rolling in the aisles with laughter.
As part of the Metroplus Theatre Fest, Rajat Kapoor’s Cinematograph brought “Hamlet – the Clown Prince” to Chennai. The play is about a troupe of clowns attempting to put on a show of Hamlet. They forget lines, omit entire scenes, and speak in a combination of English and gibberish. There is a high degree of improvisation and audience interaction which adds to the general hilarity.
Claudius sings from the Lion King, off-stage affairs abound – most notably between Gertrude and Hamlet – while cue cards are torn up and an egg is hatched.
Yet, true to Shakespeare, the clowns speak no more than is set down for them, returning to consider the necessary question of the play.
They move seamlessly between their world and Shakespeare’s, searching for the essence of Hamlet. They may not always use Shakespeare’s words, but his passion survives. Hamlet’s soliloquies extant in the adaptation are delivered beautifully, albeit mixed with some gibberish. The scene where Ophelia gives out flowers to her family brought a tear to my eye.
A stark simple set, and excellent lighting add to the production, as do the award-winning costumes by Tanya Ghavri. Eventually, the standing ovation at the end of the play says more than the awards or even reviews can!
I thought it was a really fun play… very well-done and neatly executed. But don’t you think that on some level it was just fun and not much more than that? I mean, one doesn’t watch a Python spoof or a Mel Brooks spoof and insist on adding meaning to it. And considering the amount of slapstick that this play had, it really wasn’t more than a spoof, was it? That’s why I thought it was loads of fun, but little more than that.
No, actually.. I agree that it was a lot of fun, but don’t think it was simply a spoof..
I thought they tried, in their performance, to distill the essence of Hamlet.. without some of the Shakespearian language, but in keeping with the spirit of Shakespeare.
Of course on some level it’s funny. And it’s meant to be funny. But it wasn’t being hammed up just for laughs. And it was interspersed with the real Hamlet as well – quite successfully in my opinion.
I have seen this play twice. Have also seen C for Clown by Cinematograph as well. What I found really interesting was the degree of interaction with the audience and the impromptu improvisations based on the reactions of the audience. C for Clown actually had randomly chosen audience members on the stage twice.