To Laugh Or Not To Laugh

Hamlet, The Clown Prince

Hamlet, The Clown Prince, is an award winning play directed by Rajat Kapoor. It is a laugh riot. However, it cannot be left unsaid that this play in English and Gibberish, is made of several layers that is profound in meaning. And even while you laugh you cannot stop thinking. It seeks to look at things in a different perspective.

The play: A bunch of clowns is putting up a show. They have taken the Shakespearean tragedy, ‘Hamlet’ and are trying to enact it. They sometimes misinterpret the text, sometimes find new meanings in it, sometimes try to understand it and very often make a mess of it.

They choose to use phrases from the play mixed with gibberish. They even edit the text, throw out important scenes and often reverse the order of things. But through this all they look for the essence of Hamlet and try to find a context in our own times.

It is performed by The Company Theatre and the performers are Atul Kumar, Puja Sarup, Sujay Saple, Namit Das, Rachel D’Souza and Neil Bhoopalan.

Directed by Bollywood actor Rajat Kapoor, it has got standing ovation around the world. It has received the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) in 2009 for Best Play, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Costume Design.

The play is in Gibberish and English

• Date: 6.30 pm, 15^th November

• Venue: Fine Arts Hall, Foreshore Road, Cochin

Comments

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