Monday 8 June 2015

"Hamlet" By the globe theater

HAMLET

Performed by the Globe Theater in Fiji last night (8th June 2015). 

The first time I came across the work of Theater master, William Shakespeare, was in high school English class when we studied Julius Ceasar. I looked through book shops for a simple copy of the book because the English used in JC was not making much sense to me. Finally we found a copy that had the Shakespeare English on one side and 'normal' English on the other side. JC made so much sense to me and I loved it. 

While doing my undergraduate studies at USP I took up Psychology and Theater Arts. During my final semester as an undergrad we performed three Shakespeare plays; Oedipus (a musical choir); Macbeth (where I played one of the three Witches) and A Midsummer Nights Dream (where I played Hermia). These have been my Shakespeare encounters. 

And than there was last night. Last night I witnessed an International theater team perform HAMLET. I had not read Hamlet before and decided to watch the play first before reading it. And I am glad I didn't read it before hand. 



The set was minimal in a sense. The use of curtains to separate the main stage from back stage and the entries and exists was creative. Using trunks as props and having a musical group that comes in and out added to the creativity. 






I was sitting in the second last row and there was a railing in front of me. I don't know when I leaned onto it and was enjoying myself when someone tapped me from behind asking me to sit straight as I was blocking their view. Woopsie!!! That is how carried away I got the play. It was beautifully executed. 

I am not going to go into the detail of the story line because if the Globe theater is coming to your town and you haven't read the play, go see it to be mesmerized and wishing for them to return to you with more of their work. I will say this; the audience in the HOUSE FULL ICT center; gave them a standing ovation. How long did they applaud? I don't know but it was long enough for the cast to take a bow, exist, enter again, take a bow, exist and enter for a third time. I am sure the applauds would have kept on coming but the cast needed to pack up the set. 

After the show I stuck around and had small chats with the cast members. They were so wonderful and friendly. They were happy that we enjoyed the show and we were happy that they came and took our breath away. 
With Hamlet himself :-) 








The Globe theater is on a two year tour of the WORLD. They will be performing in 205 countries. FIJI was number 105 and they have been performing for one year now. Tonight they perform in Tuvalu and have 99 countries on the pending list. 

I wish them all the very best and I do hope we can get them back to Fiji again with shows in more than one Fijian Location. 

until next blog;
AEB-M 




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