To be honest,
it took me a while to digest The Al-Hamlet Summit. I left the
theatre not knowing what to make of the production; it was as if the
action had come at me like a whirlwind and struck me in the face, rendering
me speechless. I struggled to get to grips with my reaction to it for
a long time, but when it eventually sank in, this is what I found I
wanted to say: the production was powerful in its language, intriguing
in its ideas and, basically, pretty gutsy stuff. Yes, The Al-Hamlet
Summit proved itself worthy of the accolades it has won.
Writer/Director Sulayman Al-Bassam's version of Shakespeare's original
work focuses mainly on the state of a nation as a diseased body gradually
brought to ruin. The script for the performance was written with recent
events concerning the Arab world and the West (the 9/11 incident, for
one) taken into consideration. This was done in Sulayman's effort to
explore the relationship between two cultures that inextricably intertwine.
Upon the death of his father, the rightful leader of the state, Hamlet
returns home only to find that his uncle, Claudius, has assumed power
and married his mother, Gertrude. The state faces imminent attack from
their old neighbour and enemy, Fortinbras, who is backed by foreign
imperial forces. Appropriately set at a modern-day political summit
where tensions tend to run high, the play commences with Claudius' announcement
of a New Democracy, which Hamlet does not show much enthusiasm for.
Nonetheless, Hamlet is persuaded by Claudius to to stay home and show
his loyalty to the country as its Crown Prince instead of returning
to his studies abroad. Marriage between Hamlet and Chief Minister Polonius'
daughter, Ophelia, is subsequently proposed in a bid to use the marriage
to geld Hamlet and preempt his resistance to the New Democracy. At the
same time, Hamlet finds out from a Western arms dealer that pamphlets
have been released by the fundamentalists accusing Claudius of the murder
of Hamlet's father and blaming Hamlet for his inaction. Hamlet is enraged
by what he reads and, as he attempts to uncover the truth, his madness
heightens and he becomes filled with religiosity, which causes those
around him to deem him a terrorist. Finally Hamlet declares civil war
in his state, causing the deaths of his family, as well as ending the
innocent lives of many of his countrymen.
Originally scripted and performed in English, Al-Hamlet was
presented this time in Arabic with English surtitles. Although I sometimes
had a hard time simultaneously watching the action onstage and reading
the surtitles, I think Sulayman did a commendable job with the English
script, despite the demands of reimagining a Shakespearean text. Sulayman
produced a sophisticated piece of writing that was powerful in tone,
poetic, filled with rhetoric and littered with moments of wit. His jabs
at Arab and Western states ("Damascus? / Too many intellectuals.", "Paris?
/ Too many women.") and international peace-keeping organisations induced
much laughter from the audience.
Sulayman's astute decision to leave out all the minor roles, such as
Rosencrantz and Guildernstern, allowed more direct interaction between
the primary characters. It is also evident that the use of props had
been considered carefully. In substitution of the character of the Ghost
of Hamlet's Father, objects like the fundamentalists' leaflets and Hamlet's
father's grave were employed, and they managed to tell the story just
as well. Adding to the religious connotations of the play, the voice
of Allah was also used in place of the Ghost in the confrontational
scene between Hamlet and Gertrude. All these were rather daring changes
for Sulayman to make, especially with such a renowned piece of literature;
fortunately, they worked out well, generating a story that stayed close
to the original Hamlet in its flow of events, yet at the same
time allowed the audience to identify with recent episodes of turbulence
and strife occurring in the Arab world.
Sulayman's piece managed to cast the characters of Claudius and Hamlet
in a different light. In the original, Hamlet's inability to find solace
in either religion or philosophy, and the madness that arises from his
resolution to avenge his father 's death make him a figure of worthy
of sympathy. However, in Sulayman's adaptation, Hamlet's madness is
depicted in the form of religious zealotry, which instead causes one
to develop a feeling of disapproval towards the character. Claudius,
on the other hand, is a selfish, conniving political figure in the original,
but in Sulayman's version, he seems to take on a weaker, less threatening
role. These altered portrayals of the two key figures played out the
idea that there is no one party that can be considered solely responsible
for the chaotic Middle-Eastern political situation.
Undoubtedly the most moving and powerful moment of the play was Claudius'
monologue (the one that in the original ends, "My words fly up,
my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go").
A satire of the dealings of statesmen in the Arab world, it interweaves
the supposed glorious, sovereign power of God with man's corrupted ways.
Claudius' initial tone of helplessness shifts to one of greed and taunting
towards the omniscient being that he claims granted him power. Coming
from a man as shrewd as Claudius, such an honest expression of his nature
is moving. When he turns around and proclaims that all of the evil he
has committed originated from no other than God himself - that he, Claudius,
is a mere partaker of God's "gluttony and endless filth" - there is
a foreboding sense of hopelessness: goodness and purity seem to be far
out of reach. Credit goes to Nicolas Daniel, who displayed the desperation,
vulnerability, and insatiable greed for power that Claudius possessed,
while delivering his lines with excellent control. Another actor worthy
of mention is Sulayman, who possessed a commanding stage presence as
the Crown Prince himself and tackled Hamlet's erratic ways with ease
and a deep sense of familiarity with the character.
Other than tiny gripes like not being able to hear the actors' conversations
whenever they spoke in English because of their lack of projection and
the volume of the background music, and having to divert my attention
from the stage to read the surtitles (hopefully I will get more adept
with more practice!), I enjoyed a night of slick, well-crafted and thought-provoking
theatre.
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"The production was powerful in its language, intriguing in its
ideas and, basically, pretty gutsy stuff"
Credits
Writer/Director: Sulayman Al-Bassam
Asst. Director: Nigel Barrett
Musical Director/Composer/Musician: Lewis Gibson
Composer/Musician: Alfredo Genovesi
Lighting Designer/Technical Director: Richard Williamson
Subtitles: Wafa'a Al-Fraheen
Asst. Technical Director: Robin Snowdon
Production Manager: Mohamed Jawad Ahmad
International Producer: Georgina Van Welie
Cast: Sulayman Al-Bassam, Nicolas Daniel, Amana Wali,
Monadhil Al-Bayati, Mariam Ali, Bashar Al-Ibrahim and Nigel Barrett
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