NEERAJ KABI AS DIRECTOR - HAMLET

H A M L E T

Premiered at Prithvi theatre in July 2005

Performed 28 shows.

A play in English and hindi.

Supported by the British council division Mumbai.

A play using Indian traditions of Yakshagana and dhrupad.

Official entry at the National theatre festival, Mumbai.

Official entry at the NSD National theatre festival,Delhi.

Opened the Kala Ghoda Theatre festival,Mumbai.

Performed in Mumbai,Bangalore,Delhi.

A debut production

HAMLET

ABOUT THE PLAY

Hamlet happened by chance. The play has evolved from a training program that I was conducting for my new team of actors. Hamlet led us to many facts and facets of life around us. The more we read it the more we saw in terms of theatre. Work on Hamlet began in 2003.Extensive research was done on history, socio-political situations in England and India when Hamlet was written, paintings, mind sets, philosophies, etc.

The need to adapt the play to an Indian sensibility came across very strongly. Dhrupad and Yakshagana being prevelant forms of art at the time Hamlet was written excited me as a director. The entire process of creation has come out of careful study of the text, the background, the actor’s lives and what we are representing today. It was very important for me to know what each actor was trying to say through the play. The discoveries were exciting. At some point the ragaas of the music of Yakshagana and Dhrupad connected very beautifully. The speeches of the characters got perfectly translated into Dhrupad. The feelings, rhythm and weight of Shakespeare’s lines became a perfect representation of ragaas.

The design of the movements of the actors is to me a physical representation of Dhrupad. They move and speak within the ‘bandish’ of the four beat rhythm making ‘Denmark a prison’.

The attempt was to fuse the three traditions of Yakshagana, Dhrupad and Theatre together in one space without disturbing their sensibilities.

The other tough task was to shrink this long play to 1 hour 45 minutes.

There are sequences in the play where two scenes in different spaces happen at the same time. Such is life and so is the theatre.

Hamlet has been a long journey in the making and in a city like Mumbai it gets all the more tough. To me the play has been a powerful process of growth as an individual. It has made me feel the power of theatre and has given me the opportunity to touch the lives of my entire crew through the theatre. I am grateful to the Dhrupad artistes and the Yakshagana team for having consented to work together on this venture which I thought might be impossible.

The cast of actors and the Yakshagana players have changed innumerable times. Yet everything settles………almost surrendering to the play and ultimately to the theatre.

AUDIENCE REACTION

1. I’ve never seen HAMLET in that perspective – The male and the female. It was amazing. PREETI GANGOLY – [Director of Ashok Kumar’s academy of dramatic arts]

2. I think this one of the finest production I have seen ever. Nobody does this kind of experimentation now a days with a form, etc. and that too with a play like HAMLET. The kind of interpretation that Neeraj has done with the play and all the Indian forms is just fabulous. I just cannot express myself because I am so excited after the show. VINAY PESHWE – [National school of drama, Graduate]

3. We have seen HAMLET on screen, in the theatre and all that but this time it was really unusual. It’s really amazing how we can use the Indian art forms. An amazing and unusual performance. AUDIENCE- [ At the Prithvi Theatre show, Mumbai ]
   

4. No comments. Truly awesome. AUDIENCE- [ At the Rangashankara Theatre show, Banglore]
   

FOR THE ACTORS – A BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY

1. During the exercise my whole life came in front of my eyes, amazingly connecting with the life of my character. I went through a myriad of emotions and by the end of the exercise there were tears in my eyes, not of self pity, but of acceptance of the world. After that day it has been a long journey of discovery on each day of the rehearsal as a person and as an actor. GAURAV SAINI – [Actor playing Horatio]
   

2. For the first time in my eleven years of theatre my energy level is constant. I am willing to learn whatever I am being taught. UJJWAL CHOPRA – [Actor playing Guildenstern]