It might have been the chap dressed in a pressed white suit and vintage glasses in the front row. Or the 10 restless Western children opposite him. “The fighting happens in the second half,” one mother pleaded at the interval.
But Monday night’s performance of Hamlet by a traveling troupe from Shakespeare’s Globe recalled less of the rambunctious London theater than the Pegu Club, circa 1890.
“Mingalabar,” ventured Tom Lawrence, one of the actors before curtain-up. But, aside from a handful of Myanmar students near the back, the Strand Hotel ballroom fizzed with well-heeled expats.
The house lights would be kept on to conjure some of the Globe’s open-air atmosphere, Lawrence added. But the Globe is a heaving pit where standing space can be bought for $8. This was the chandelier-filled ballroom of Yangon’s most exclusive hotel. Tickets were $50, payable only in dollars.
In some of the other more than 100 countries they have visited, the traveling company, known as Globe to Globe, has played community theaters and village squares and charged punters as little as $5. Why not here?
When we talked to the organizers, they said the production had no sponsor – nonetheless, the promotional material lists support from companies like Ogilvy and Mather and Anthem Asia.
But, after all, the play’s the thing, so let’s go on.
This Hamlet is an accessible, often humorous take on the classic with some standout performances. Ladi Emeruwa is powerful as the righteous, political Prince, spitting out his lines about the rottenness of Denmark. Amanda Wilkin has spine-tingling moments as a brutally physical Ophelia, staggering about in a ripped nightgown and beating her breast.
Director Dominic Dromgoole has dubbed staging of Shakespeare that has a consistent style “halfwitted” but the traveling player trope that runs through his own adaptation feels tired. The backdrop is a tent, the actors haul luggage cases and jig about playing folk songs.
It’s a nod to Shakespeare’s fondness for the play-within-a-play as well as a Meta reflection on Globe to Globe’s own mission. But some of the eloquent melancholy is lost in the breeziness. The death of Keith Barlett’s bawdy Polonius is treated with little pathos. John Dougall is oddly stagey as an introspective King Claudius whose lines are lost in the puffed-up deliverance. Rawiri Paratene’s similarly dramatic air as the Ghost, however, holds the stage and his gravedigger is a folksy delight.
Yangon was one of the last stops on Globe to Globe’s two-year worldwide tour. It’s a remarkable feat and the actors well-deserved the standing ovation they got. The cast is talented and, fittingly for a global tour – diverse. Next time, we should be able to say the same about the crowd.
