Abstract
On the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, the Globe Theatre launched an ambitious production of Hamlet, attempting to perform in every country on earth. Actor
Leong (second from left) and the Hamlet company warm up for their final shows back at The Globe Theatre, London, after two years on the road, April 2016
CREDIT: Left: Adrian Leong Right: Saiatama Arts Theatre, Japan
Except we didn’t get very far before the police tried to stop us. Inevitably, I suppose, it was in the middle of the iconic words almost synonymous with Shakespeare - Hamlet’s “To be or not to be”. The crowds were growing, spilling into the thoroughfare, and the police demanded to see our permit.
Having taken this play to 189 countries and reached people beyond that, we came to know every show day as a troubleshooting day. When the issue was with location and crowd management it was, as with that singularly surreal day in Mandjou, expertly dealt with by our producer and stage managers. On other occasions we faced censorship panels that wanted to scrutinise anything from costumes to specific scenes or even the use of certain words and props. In trying to put on the same production everywhere, we experienced these cultural differences first hand.
Our project was the biggest tour ever attempted by any theatre in the world and it marked the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. Over two years our company of 16 travelled with all our set, playing everywhere from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe. As with many touring productions we often submitted the script, complete with cuts and music cues, to the local theatres and relevant authorities for clearance and the preparation of surtitles. Sometimes the content or the presentation of our Hamlet came under scrutiny that was beyond that. In certain countries social and religious conventions demanded that we adjust aspects of the production simply for the show to go on.
One thing I discovered was that often we were being held to stricter standards than the average citizen. And no wonder, our show was often an “event” on the city’s social calendar, a foreign company on a highly visible platform.
One of our stops was in Male, Maldives. White powdery beaches and waters of a deep shade of emerald? No. I couldn’t testify to that, as we spent most of our brief stay there working, but we did have an interesting run-in at the airport. The state religion of the Maldives is Islam, and there are rules against the display of religious symbols not belonging to the faith. As our set, housed in 16 bespoke trunks, passed through the airport scanners, an official looked concerned and asked the whole party to step aside. He had seen the golden cross that the priest holds during Ophelia’s funeral towards the end of the play. We were not allowed to take the cross past customs and had to leave it at the airport, to be picked up on our flight out.
This was not entirely unexpected and we quickly made the decision to have the priest come on with just a black prayer book, which we had anyway for various other scenes when Hamlet was reading. The word “Christian” was subsequently cut from its few mentions in the play. In my opinion the changes did not affect the story we were telling; we got to put on a show for the Maldivians, complete with the rather subversive notions of appealing to a (Christian) God, and sublime philosophising about heaven and hell. The essence of the spiritual struggle was all there, despite the odd word being cut.
Leong performing at the Saitama Arts Theatre, Japan
Performing in Tehran, Iran, was a more choreographed affair. It wasn’t the first censorship panel we faced, but together with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it was one of the few occasions where we had to make changes to our costumes and blocking.
Leong chats to younger members of the audience after the show in Mandjou, Cameroon
CREDIT: Amanda Wilkin
We gathered at the theatre a couple hours before our normal call time to get into costume and greet the panel. While the men donned their usual Danish military garb, the women had to abandon our normal shortsleeved, fitted dresses completely. Headscarves were carefully pinned down, and we thanked our lucky stars that we decided, last-minute, to pick up some long-sleeved tunics at Lahore airport before jetting into Tehran.
Another aspect that came under scrutiny was physical contact between men and women onstage. The panel wished to see the nunnery scene and the closet scene, both depicting an intensely intimate encounter between two characters of the opposite sex. They also asked to see the dumbshow, our “play within the play” sequence in which Player King and Queen danced together, suggesting sexual desire and great intimacy. We toned down the dumbshow and made slight changes to the blocking of both nunnery and closet. I had noticed how the officials seemed more comfortable with Hamlet’s violence towards Gertrude and Ophelia than the tenderness he felt for them leading up to the confrontations. The compromise in the end turned out to be, as put memorably by one of the panel, “You can touch but you cannot enjoy the touching”.
One of the most rewarding things in negotiating all this was the response of our audiences everywhere. Many local writers and artists came up to us after shows, some visibly surprised, others simply excited, that they had just seen what they didn’t think could be done on stage in their country. In Iran they saw men and women interacting as equals. In India they saw a young man and a young woman looking for love and trying to defy their elders. And in Saudi Arabia, Horatio, who could be played by either a man or a woman in a rotating cast in our production, was seen by the audience as a woman dressed as a man, getting involved in all the action.
I am rather proud of our record of never having to cancel a single performance over the two years. We did what was necessary to carry on doing the show, and never compromised on the story we were telling. It definitely helps that Shakespeare belongs to all and is beloved by all. We were lucky to have words that, after 400 years, still start debates, and still set pulses racing.