If every theater play is a world, Hamlet is a hall of mirrors containing infinite worlds within itself. We could perform it once and again, watch it every day for many years, and we would never finish it. In fact, it hasn't been concluded in four centuries, and it's possibly the most performed show of all time. As Sergi Belbel says, with each line, multiple possibilities open up, each of which takes us in different and exciting paths. That's why we were drawn to the proposal brought to us by him and Enric Cambray: to dissect the work, to let Hamlet himself be the lucid and ironic commentator of his own family history.
Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, returns to Teatre La Biblioteca, and he does so in the format of stand-up comedy, or better put, stand-up tragedy. When we did Hamlet in 2009, we felt the freedom within the extraordinary measure of Shakespeare's verses in a very direct way. We were fascinated by the adventure of staking for an interpretation of this tragedy and taking it to the extreme. Later, in 2021, we produced Hamlet again, and we transformed Cinema Aribau into an ephemeral theater to tell his story. We rediscovered the human dimension of this character within an immense room with a giant screen projecting scenes from movies that have accompanied us since childhood. The larger and emptier the space, the more dignity the actor's figure takes on when bringing the character to life. The smaller the proportion of a body in the vastness of the world, the more epic their deeds, and the more universal the causes they fight for, even if they are nothing more than a straw. What is, fundamentally, the human dimension?
Hamlet.01, the monologue written by Sergi Belbel that has traveled across Catalonia, is an excellent opportunity to meet this great character once again, to experience him anew, and to discover him as always different. A great actor and a great director and playwright have come together: their proposal is fresh, lively, and born out of a passion for sincere and intimate theater. Enric and Sergi dissect Hamlet with sarcasm and force, and we can do nothing but meet the story of the court of Elsinore once again, which is also a bit our own.
La Perla 29
