Hamlet clowned upon
I confess that I was star struck when I booked three tickets for
Hamlet - the Clown Prince directed by
Rajat Kapoor. Nothing can go wrong with tried and tested names in the Hindi
film world as cast and crew, or so I believed. I also believe that I am someone
who is open enough to look beyond the original text and allow space for intelligent
and engaging improvisation. Having said that, Hamlet has always been a great
favourite of mine from among the Shakespearean tragedies and I confess to being
extremely loyal to the original text. So here’s what transpired at the
screening of Hamlet- the Clown Prince
at Chowdaiah memorial hall on 9th September.
It all started with the organisers' constant drilling about sticking to time, via social media and later on via SMS after the tickets were purchased. Made me hopeful that we would finally look past excuses of Bangalore traffic and start the show bang on time. Twenty minutes after the start time, we were still checking out the ceiling (the acoustics at Chowdaiah has always been a matter of pride for every Bangalorean) and gaping at strangers walking past us. There were people walking in even after the show had started. So why all this fuss? Finally the curtains were raised and a bunch of clowns appeared on stage. I entertained the gibberish which overstayed its welcome in the sole hope that this was an introduction and we would get to the play soon. Time went by and I saw no change in actors but only an addition to the set of clowns who finally played Hamlet.
There are solid reasons why I could not digest this clown show and accept it as an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Agreed that the play has been titled, Hamlet – The Clown Prince and it forebodes a lot of change to the original but what I found unacceptable was the way even the psyche of the main character was tampered with. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a multi-layered character and his trepidations are aplenty. The depth of the character which makes for most of the feel of the play gets diluted and becomes almost non-existent in this act of buffoonery. I found it insensitive that the director chose to ridicule Hamlet’s trauma for the benefit of entertainment of an audience which, he perhaps presumed, did not have the patience to get in to the details. From the looks and sounds around the hall on Sunday I wasn't very sure if the audience was thoroughly entertained with what was being offered. The laughter was muffled or at times forced. The jump from one scene to the other and the emotions which accompanied them were too haphazard leaving the audience with no time to absorb what went by before we were pulled back in to the clown show.
The one scene which really touched me and which did its best to tell the story was the drowning scene of Ophelia. I loved that. The character was subtly portrayed with a voice that haunted and she did true justice to the scene. There is unfortunately nothing else which has stayed with me. Everyone played their parts well and the play showcased hours of rigorous practise. But this could have been just any script and not specifically Hamlet. There were skilled dancers and singers who were a treat to watch and listen to whenever there was room for it. The sexual innuendos throughout the play were amusing as it started but it became irritating even for an adult audience as it went on. To think how the production went about censorship considering the fact that it was open to all above 6 years still beats me.
Overall, I found the play a disappointment. My 15 year old daughter and her friend were disengaged from after the first thirty minutes of the play. They didn't find anything to laugh at despite this being a clown show and they also couldn't gather what was going on from a story point of view. So if the argument is that the play was experimented upon to be brought to the level of the common man/uninitiated/’groundling’, that myth went also bust.
It all started with the organisers' constant drilling about sticking to time, via social media and later on via SMS after the tickets were purchased. Made me hopeful that we would finally look past excuses of Bangalore traffic and start the show bang on time. Twenty minutes after the start time, we were still checking out the ceiling (the acoustics at Chowdaiah has always been a matter of pride for every Bangalorean) and gaping at strangers walking past us. There were people walking in even after the show had started. So why all this fuss? Finally the curtains were raised and a bunch of clowns appeared on stage. I entertained the gibberish which overstayed its welcome in the sole hope that this was an introduction and we would get to the play soon. Time went by and I saw no change in actors but only an addition to the set of clowns who finally played Hamlet.
There are solid reasons why I could not digest this clown show and accept it as an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Agreed that the play has been titled, Hamlet – The Clown Prince and it forebodes a lot of change to the original but what I found unacceptable was the way even the psyche of the main character was tampered with. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a multi-layered character and his trepidations are aplenty. The depth of the character which makes for most of the feel of the play gets diluted and becomes almost non-existent in this act of buffoonery. I found it insensitive that the director chose to ridicule Hamlet’s trauma for the benefit of entertainment of an audience which, he perhaps presumed, did not have the patience to get in to the details. From the looks and sounds around the hall on Sunday I wasn't very sure if the audience was thoroughly entertained with what was being offered. The laughter was muffled or at times forced. The jump from one scene to the other and the emotions which accompanied them were too haphazard leaving the audience with no time to absorb what went by before we were pulled back in to the clown show.
The one scene which really touched me and which did its best to tell the story was the drowning scene of Ophelia. I loved that. The character was subtly portrayed with a voice that haunted and she did true justice to the scene. There is unfortunately nothing else which has stayed with me. Everyone played their parts well and the play showcased hours of rigorous practise. But this could have been just any script and not specifically Hamlet. There were skilled dancers and singers who were a treat to watch and listen to whenever there was room for it. The sexual innuendos throughout the play were amusing as it started but it became irritating even for an adult audience as it went on. To think how the production went about censorship considering the fact that it was open to all above 6 years still beats me.
Overall, I found the play a disappointment. My 15 year old daughter and her friend were disengaged from after the first thirty minutes of the play. They didn't find anything to laugh at despite this being a clown show and they also couldn't gather what was going on from a story point of view. So if the argument is that the play was experimented upon to be brought to the level of the common man/uninitiated/’groundling’, that myth went also bust.
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