The world's a stage

WHEN I FIRST heard about the Shakespeare’s Globe’s plan to tour their new production of “Hamlet” to every country of the world in the two years spanning the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth last April to the 400th of his death next April, I couldn’t help but feel that this would be a kind of cultural imperialism, strengthening the notion that we need to study English in order to fully understand Shakespeare. I even joked to my students that if our ancestors had been more ambitious fighting and travelling beyond our region, we might instead be doing a Globe to Globe “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” now.
I grew fonder of the touring idea when I found out that the company comprises only 12 actors and four stage managers, and that they’ve been performing in various kinds of venues – outdoors and indoors, ancient and modern playhouses – in front of everyone from African villagers to diplomats at the United Nations.
While visiting almost 100 countries in slightly over a year has no doubt been an interesting experience, it is also a major challenge for cast and crew, who only have a morning and afternoon to settle into a new environment.
The audience at the Epsom College’s auditorium outside the Malaysian capital on Tuesday night – a good mix of expats, international-school students and locals – was attentive from the moment an actor delivered a brief introduction and the whole company kicked off the play with a newly written song by Laura Forrest-Hay. This didn’t tone down the integrity of the play but rather reeled in the contemporary audience.
Much credit is due to directors Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst. Under their supervision, the 155-minute performance, with a 15-minute intermission, was not only fleeting and fun but also a sublime showcase of the ensemble of actors and stage managers. The former helped the latter with scene changes and the latter also performed on some musical instruments and sang a few songs.
Each cast member – except for Nigeria-born Ladi Emeruwa whose Hamlet was effortless and showed various aspects of this title character with his commendable diction – performed three to four roles, some cross-gender, and all shifted back and forth convincingly from one to another. My personal favourites were Miranda Foster and Keith Bartlett. The former’s transition from Gertrude to the second gravedigger was almost unrecognisable; the latter from the ghost of King Hamlet to Claudius – the least villainous yet the most realistic portrayal of this role I’ve ever seen – was arresting. Both also performed the players in the touring company that visited Elsinore, and the comic relief was at an apex.
Jonathan Fensom’s design was simple but highly practical. Boxes, which the company takes as excess baggage on their travels, were fully used as set props. The two wooden poles downstage left and right might have reminded some audience members of the Globe Theatre in London, and the red curtain and the rope attached to them had important functions in the course of the play, quite apart from highlighting that theatre mirrors life.
In the end, I didn’t feel that it was an act of neo-colonialism and it certainly didn’t show a definite way of how a Shakespearean play should be staged. Instead, the whole experience reminded me that the Bard wrote his plays for people from all walks of life and his actors managed to entertain and inspire them day after day. And I smiled every time I glanced at the six kids sitting and lying on big cushions on the floor in front of the stage, waving at the actors at times but always rapt.
If the Bard were looking down from heaven, he would no doubt be thrilled that four centuries later people around the world are watching and learning life lessons from his plays.
The writer thanks Epsom College’s Joe Shepley-Clarke and Rossinder Kaur for all assistance.
 SOLD OUT
 n Tonight’s performance of “Globe to Globe ‘Hamlet’” at Chulalongkorn University’s Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts is sold out. It’s at 7.30pm with a post-show talk with actors.
n For more, visit GlobeToGlobe.ShakespearesGlobe.com.