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YOU
discover that your uncle masterminded the death of your
father, whose widow—your mother, of course—he married
two months after the funeral. He did this to rule the
country as king.
All this
“mind-f_ck” you learn from a ghost wandering in the
night. A ghost that only makes itself visible to your
human eyes. The ghost also claims to be your father’s.
Haunted,
bereaved, confused, angry, indignant and paranoid, you’d
easily go insane thinking of what action to take: take
revenge or not, kill your uncle and hate your mother
forever, or simply get away from it all—but then again,
you have nowhere to go. So you wander the streets and
pester people with your weird ideas, mumbling: “To be or
not to be, that is the question….”
‘Dammit, where’s the lighter?’ Hamlet (Nic Manahan)
confronts Ophelia (Cris Villonco).
Written
sometime between 1590 and 1608 by William Shakespeare,
the tragic story of “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”,
continues to be retold and astound new generations of
readers and theater enthusiasts.
For
those who readily think of, well, a little ham when the
word “Hamlet” is brought up, Shakespeare is the most
brilliant, boring playwright whom professors of English
literature forced on them as weekend reading assignment.
It’s a
compelling story but the Old English language easily
turns people off. It’s like watching a foreign film
without subtitles. Then there are the clothes: men in
tights and women in corsets. Count Dracula has a more
visually appealing fashion sense.
All
these stuff were considered with the ongoing staging of
“Hamlet” by Repertory Philippines. They got rid of the
British accents and lessened the “thou,” “thy” and
“hath.” The clothes, as described by a theater critic,
remind us of early 1980s blockbuster trilogy Mad Max,
which, coincidentally, also deals with revenge.
There’s
also the Mad Max dystopian atmosphere that pervades
Rep’s “Hamlet.” Throw in the usual Hollywood-ish
post-World War II scenario, where people live in the
desert and ironically wear leather jackets. No bath for
months, no changing of clothes after surviving one
sandstorm to another.
Anyhow,
“Hamlet” is played by Rep’s poster boy, Nic Manahan. For
the last two weekends we watched the play, we were glued
to this ruggedly handsome Hamlet, whose Jim Carey-ish
aura added a generous touch of humor to this weird
character. This time, Hamlet smokes, too. His all-black
fashion statement reminded us of pilots in the 1930s,
complete with goggles. Today he can be mistaken for a
punk band vocalist, credibly screaming-singing, “I am
the Antichrist, I am an anarchist....”
He was
so beautiful and credible that, for a while, we thought
we were gay.
Seriously, Manahan has played the role twice, for the
University of Asia and the Pacific and for Tanghalang
Pilipino (TP) seven years ago, under then-TP artistic
director Paul Dumol. Indeed, Manahan was born to play
Hamlet.
Only
upon reading the play’s program notes did we discover
that playing Ophelia was Cris Villonco. She essayed the
role so well that we forgot to look at the pretty face.
With disheveled hair and white fur coat for a nearly
deranged Ophelia, Villonco gives justice to madness and
melancholia.
The bald
Joel Trinidad is scary and cunning as King Claudius.
This time, he shows his versatility onstage, playing the
bad guy.
Rep’s
“Hamlet” gathers the best actors from other theater
companies.
From the
Philippine Educational Theater Association, there’s
Bodjie Pascua ever-credibly playing Polonius. From New
Voice Company, Jamie Wilson is the humongous and tough
Laertes. Recently thrown into theater limelight via
Atlantis Productions’ highly successful “Avenue Q”,
there’s Felix Rivera playing Guildenstern. We wish he
was given a more visible role.
We also
hope for a more dystopian set design. Scenes shifting
from the palace to the dunes could have been more
specific. The confessional box-like backdrop that
appears behind the actors to suggest we’re in a palace
isn’t all that believable. We felt like in a rehearsal
and the carpenter came in with half-finished props. And
what’s with the wooden chairs? Mad Max used lots of
metals and stones.
“Hamlet”
is directed by veteran Rep actress Ana Abad Santos-Bitong.
She writes in the director’s notes: “Forget all you know
about Hamlet and let us retell it.”
Indeed,
Madam, for three weekends at the OnStage Greenbelt,
“Hamlet” has never been so engaging, so punk, modern
and, pardon the cliché, cool. In those two weekend
nights we watched the play, as we left the theater, we
found ourselves half-expecting to bump into the balding
but long-haired Shakespeare, wearing Doc Martens, black
jeans and leather jacket, getting a ticket from traffic
police officers—and him bribing them—for his
unregistered Harley, which would also be carrying a
scantily dressed Katrina Halili.
“Hamlet”
runs until February 17. For tickets, just go to OnStage
an hour before the play. |
