Many sides of Hamlet showcased in Poland

Traditional presentations of Shakespeare plays in English were mixed with experimental versions at festival

GDANSK/ POLAND: It’s one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays; so, it’s no wonder that Hamlet figures in more than its fair share of productions at the 19th Gdansk Shakespeare Festival in the northern Polish city.

Great John Barrymore, the opening play, set the tone with a portrait of the legendary American Shakespearean actor, rueing that he could not appreciate his own performance as Hamlet.

“One of my greatest regrets will always be that I couldn’t sit in the audience and watch me perform,” Barrymore, played by Jerzy Trela, says in the play presented by Krakow’s STU Theater on July 31. The 10-day festival featuring presentations in theatres and on the streets of Gdansk ends on August 9.

For festival director Jerzy Limon, approaching the role of Hamlet through the thoughts of an actor who played him was in keeping with the experimental nature of European theater today.

It’s also in line with the festival, known in Polish as the ‘Festiwal Szekspirowski’, which mixes traditional presentations of Shakespeare plays in English with experimental modern versions, renditions in other languages such as Polish and Russian, and works inspired by the Bard’s prolific output.

In its opening days, the festival presented a Romanian version of Hamlet while Copenhagen’s Theatre Republique and the British trio The Tiger Lillies jointly presented a version of the play, mixing drama, dance and acrobatic theatre with grotesque songs. “When I heard that they produced ‘Hamlet’, I said to myself, ‘Wow, we must have it’,” Limon said.

Other experimental works include jazz interpretations of Shakespeare’s sonnets by Portuguese singer Maria Joao and her electronic OGRE group. “It’s an adventure,” she said of their project. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th,  2015.

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