Hamlet - The Clown Prince

Over the last weekend visit to Mumbai, I had the good fortune to watch a play at the Prithvi theatre. The play titled “Hamlet, The clown prince” has been running to rave reviews and packed houses for days and so it was only proper to drag myself out of a nice Saturday slumber.

Hamlet, the great Shakespearean tragedy, vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness—from overwhelming grief to seething rage—and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.

This play however, was an interpretation from the eyes of 6 clowns. The tone of dialogue delivery is a “French English” where repertoire of dialogue is played out with a French accent.

The play begins with the protagonist, a soulful yet sad clown doing somewhat of a high speed summary of the plays great moments. What is commendable is the way the actor was able to spin out such a realistic “fast forward” of the storyline. One would imagine a play of the nature that is Hamlet to be a serious and text book version of the great play written by Shakespeare. But it is the playwright’s ingenuity with which this tragedy has been transformed into a witty, humorous screen play.

The actors on stage – many of whom I regret not to know the names of – were remarkable in the way every actor on stage should be. The dialogue perfect, the timing was spot on. What was interesting to note was the quick wit displayed by them while interacting with the audience. Prithvi is quite an intimate theatre and so the laughter shared seemed like that amongst good friends. I would like to see how this translates in a theatre like the NCPA with its capacity for larger crowds.

And if this wasn’t enough- the play goes straight on for 2 hours(or was it more.. can’t tell… was having such a great time), no breaks.

For those of you who haven’t caught this yet- please do yourself a favour and put this on your to do list for this month.