THEATER
Hamlet
By William Shakespeare
Presented by Repertory Philippines
Feb. 1 to 17
Onstage Greenbelt 1, Legazpi Village, Makati
Since 1603, Hamlet has shocked audiences - entertained them, yes, but also challenged their notions of what is right and wrong, proper and unacceptable, and what it means to live and die.
Repertory Philippines' Hamlet presents the familiar play in a new way for jaded eyes, for even the youth of today have been exposed to violent, dramatic scenes.
The director Ana Abad Santos-Bitong's vision of Hamlet is post-apocalyptic, and so the play is given a fresh, stylish new look with a bare-to-bones backdrop and wicked-looking weaponry created by Denis Lagdameo, as well as outlandish costumes designed by Faust Peneyra that would remind the viewers of sci-fi classics or Japanese anime and role-playing games, depending on their inclination.
The idea is to grab the attention of an audience new or averse to Shakespeare, or perhaps so familiar with his plays that they are no longer gripped by the throat and shaken to the core by his tragedies. Many a person has yawned his way through Hamlet, unable to get past the long speeches, barely registering the turmoil of a nobleman contemplating the murder of a kinsman and a king. It is one thing to be in the right and another to commit a wrong, however justified, and so Shakespeare takes us on a journey that revolves on that one question - "To be, or not to be?"
An actor's vehicle
Hamlet is exhausting; he is grieved, outraged, suicidal, accusatory, secretive, depressed, perversely elated, philosophical, playful, amorous, disdainful, murderous, guilty, particularly ironic, and deliberately obtuse.
Most of the play is devoted to him arguing with himself. He is an actor's dream and worst nightmare, and so Niccolo Manahan ought to be credited for wearing the many faces that is Hamlet, and involving the audience in his struggle for resolution.
It is easier to sympathize with the uncertainty assumed by someone so young (and not bad-looking to boot), whereas an older actor would have been hard put not to make Hamlet appear weak and indecisive. It also helped that Mr. Manahan pulled off the monologues in a conversational, natural tone, and garnered laughs with his delivery of the wittier lines.
I confess to being a trifle disappointed in my high expectations of Joel Trinidad as Claudius (he certainly looked the part and had the best delivery, but as arch-villain, his presence was hardly felt), Bodjie Pascua as the easily befuddled Polonius (he cut a meddlesome figure, but as another critic pointed out, not to the degree where one is both exasperated and pitying of him), and Jamie Wilson as the aggrieved Laertes (his was definitely an explosive, raging brother, but his turnabout at the banquet scene seemed a little too abrupt).
However, Rep has assembled a good ensemble cast, particularly in Randy Villarama as the faithful Horatio, Felix Rivera in the understated role as the dim Guildenstern, Pom Docena who is more successful in his brief role as the clown/gravedigger than his appearances as the ghost (a little too substantial and not quite ominous despite the deep intonations, profuse smoke, and sudden appearances and disappearances), Jejie Esguerra as Osric/player, and Francis Matheu as Francisco/player (the players were hardly recognizable with their goggles on, but they delivered well-timed comic relief to an otherwise heavy play).
No whore or Madonna
There are only two female roles to choose from in Hamlet, generally regarded as polar opposites, with one being experienced and licentious and the other a young innocent, yet both of their fates very much tied to their men. An actress playing either one of these women is challenged to go beyond the limitations of the role and add texture and dimension by the way a line is spoken or a gesture is made.
Frances Makil-Ignacio is successful in her portrayal of Gertrude, preferring not to interpret the queen as weak (except in the moral sense perhaps, as in that line, "Frailty, thy name is woman") or conniving. Although she is still described as a "seeming-faithful wife" by the ghost-king (e.g. adulterous when he was living), there is no suggestion here that she conspired with Claudius in the late king's murder in that pivotal confrontation scene with Hamlet, which could've easily been played a different way. Her only evident crime is to lie with the devil so as not to lose her position of power and her ability to protect her son, which is enough for the audience to mull over.
Surprisingly affecting is Cris Villonco as Ophelia, a role that could easily have been any actress's undoing. Hers is the burden of the most tragic figure in the play, an innocent caught in the machinations of the men in her life, ill-used and maddened at their abandonment - her brother Laertes leaves for France, her lover Hamlet rejects her (albeit after she suppresses her emotions at the behest of her father), and her father Polonius is killed. Hers is a grittier Ophelia, who smokes cigarettes, carries a switchblade, and French kisses Hamlet in the first act (which suggests more in that term "private time") - which is in
keeping with the post-apocalyptic theme, if it detracts a little from the innocence that would have made her transformation into dirty, crazy bawd more radical.
Not so rotten, this Denmark
In today's permissive society, the audience has become desensitized to some issues. The assassination of a king, even a false one, isn't such a sin but disloyalty to a brother is still despicable. Apparently, adultery is more forgivable and I overheard a lady asking someone why Gertrude was incestuous since a brother-in-law isn't technically blood-kin. Murder and revenge have become commonplace, which explains why Ms. Bitong chose to take the edginess of the play a notch higher, changing the setting, cutting scenes and dialogue, reducing characters, while retaining the heart of the play, a moral dilemma resolved too late,
with too many casualties as a result.
The modern approach to a Shakespeare play has been done before. In 1996, Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo+Juliet, with its kickass soundtrack and spot-on parallels, even its hyper melodrama, brought Shakespeare to life for the high school student I was then; it changed the way I read his work. One can only wish that this post-apocalyptic Hamlet will find its way into film, where there is more leeway, and one can truly depart from the world that is Denmark via Elizabethan England.
But overall, Rep's play, as it is, unsettles one enough to take a second look at Hamlet in its new guise and recognize its relevance even now.
Originally published on 8 February 2008 in BusinessWorld.