Name of the Play: Hamlet - The Clown Prince
Name of the Theatre Group: Cinematograph (Mumbai)
Direction: Rajat Kapoor
Playwright: The Ensemble
Language: Gibberish and English
Duration: 90 minutes
Synopsis
A bunch of clowns is putting up a show of ‘Hamlet’ — they sometimes misinterpret the text, sometimes find new meanings in it, sometimes try and understand it, and very often make a mess of it. They chose to use some phrases from the play and mixed it with gibberish. They even edited the text, threw out some important scenes, and made a mess of the order of things as if the pages got mixed up. But through this all they were simply looking for the essence of Hamlet, And, trying to find a context in our own times.
As the actors explore the wonderful world of Hamlet as clowns, the play hopes to find a more contemporary meaning, relevance and context to our times. The clown troupe has its own internal politics, personal chemistries, relationships, hierarchies and dilemmas in this improvisational piece that edits and adds to the original Hamlet freely.
The result is a highly interactive experience - where stories are told, pants are pulled down, mouths are gagged and gibberish operas are sung. But through all of this, an attempt is made to evoke the quintessential in-all-of-us Hamlet.
‘Hamlet, the Clown Prince’ swept this year’s META awards, winning in five categories, including Best Director (Rajat Kapoor), Best Play and Best Costume Design (Tanya Ghavri).
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