FAUX MADNESS AND THE COMPLEX WORLD OF HAMLET: A PLAY REVIEW OF DULAANG UNIBERSIDAD NG PILIPINAS'S HAMLET REDUX

A SAMPLE REVIEW
BY CHRISTINE JOY DE SOTTO CASTOR


UP DILIMAN—Hamlet, a work of art and passion as famous as its writer, Master William Shakespeare, the Bard of Stratford-Upon-Avon and the Flower of the English Renaissance, has found a temporary sanctuary at the Wilfrido Ma Guerrero Theater in the University of the Philippines-Diliman. It is a tragedy transformed into a very imaginable form throughout centuries. In text or in theater, it is admired and preferred at the same time. Shakespeare’s longest work was yet again reconstructed into another interesting silhouette presented and performed by the Dulaang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas for its 31st Theater Season dubbed as Hamlet: Redux in English and in Filipino.

Hamlet is a very unexplainable character. He believes in supernatural intervention. One moment he is in grief, the next moment he is in torment, and sometimes he is suicidal. He represents the vast range of human drama and emotions with faux madness to avenge for his father’s death: “Hindi ako baliw kundi nagbabaliwbaliwang sadya” (That I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft). Hamlet, accompanied by several vague characters, coats the play in layers of mystery that make it more alluring.

Pagkahaba-haba Man ng Prusisyon sa Simbahan din ang Tuloy, a very feminist play, opened the Dulaang UP’s First Season in 1976. It was Lilia Antonio’s translation of Much Ado About Nothing. After that, the Dulaang UP has been performing Shakespeare’s plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1983, Romeo and Juliet, 1987; Macbeth, 1995; Richard III, 2000; Othello, 2000; and A Winter’s Tale, 2001.

About 30 years ago, National Artist Rolando Tinio translated Shakespeare’s illustrious play into fine lyrical verses in the Filipino Language. This year, Professor Emeritus Antonio Mabesa, Dulaang UP’s founding artistic director, used Tinio’s translation to create the complex world of Hamlet in Hamlet: Redux.

Nobles don trench coats and business suits. Ophelia answers her cell phone. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz steal the spotlight in their iPods, spike hair, and crazy antics. Horatio captures Claudius’s guilt-driven face in handy cam. Hamlet and Laertes duel in matrix-style kung fu moves. Despite these pleasant twists and post modern treatment, the two-hour play admirably presented the eccentricity of Hamlet as a character.

Hamlet: Redux is simply Hamlet warped into a fresh fusion suited of the Twenty-first Century influences. Hamlet: Redux in Filipino cast of characters included Arnold Reyes as Hamlet; Dante Balboa, Claudio; Angeli Bayani, Gertudes; Allan Palileo, Polonio; Michael Ian Lomongo, Horatio; Boojie Santiago, Laertes; Cherry Mae Canton, Ofelia; Faust Peneyra, Rosencrantz; Arkel Mendoza, Guildenstern; JM De Guzman, Basalyo; and Niño Mendoza, Bernardo.

The play was dubbed Hamlet: Redux because, as Professor Mabesa explains, “An unedited Hamlet runs for four hours on stage as I have experienced years ago in Cleveland, Ohio. In this current production, we have judiciously edited the play to run for two hours, more or less, without prejudice to the basic plot, poetry, images, characters, soliloquies, and the famous lines in the play. To make the production as accessible to our young audience, the play is set in a timeless frame: settings, costumes, properties are contemporary and not localized, the sound design, eclectic; video projections, choreography, and movement, familiar to present day audiences.”

Since the play that I watched was in Filipino, one might think that it is easier than speaking in an English accent in iambic pentameter. Actually, Tinio’s formal language is about the same when speaking Shakespeare’s immortal verses. Professor Mabesa admits that Tinio’s intricate lines are actually hard to memorize but once they are in one’s mind, it flows beautifully.

Hamlet: Redux temporarily resided in the Wilfrido Ma Guerrero Theater, but I think the epitome it left on my mind will stay much longer.