I am Hamlet is Aajker Hamlet in Khardaha Dwisattik’s production

 

I am Hamlet is Aajker Hamlet in Khardaha Dwisattik’s production

Richard James’s one-act black comedy I am Hamlet is a play that has an element of a suspense thriller and has a few important qualities that makes it popular for any small group to stage it in any space, be it the proscenium or the black box. The play requires a couple of actors who ‘can act’, very little properties to handle and to top it all has a very well-structured dialogue form. Khardaha Dwisattik a new group under the stewardship of the veteran actor Prasun Banerjee staged the play at Minerva Theatre.

Banerjee has localized the play to a Bengali setting. So, the character of the director of a theatre group Tom becomes Abhay Roy, and Simon who comes to join the theatre group that is preparing to stage Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, and seeks to play the title role, in the absence of the regular player, becomes Hemant Bose. But this process of Bengalicization has posed a few problems naturally. There are quite a few of Shakespearean references in the dialogues, and as both James’s language and that of Shakespeare belong to the same linguistic family, the subtle nuances of many a word or phrase get lost in Banerjee’s script. Phrases like ‘wooden O’ or ‘shit sandwich’ never ever fits into the colloquiality of the Bengali tongue. On the other hand, the signet ring is a very common element in the western society, or for that matter Prentice is a not-very-common English surname as Bose is in the Bengali society. It was equally not a bright idea to change the original coffee into whiskey. Moreover, one may get the idea that whiskey is a very common drink during the rehearsals of a Bengali theatre group! Another point of disagreement is the relevance of the Bengali translations of the Hamlet-dialogues, as Abhay had decided to stage Hamlet… in the Shakespearean language. This has certainly hindered the progression of the play. Bringing Shakespeare’s tragedy into our modern times and in our midst is the basic flavour of Richard James’s drama and that has been maintained in Banerjee’s script, though. And perhaps that is the reason he has named his play Aajker Hamlet which literally translates into Today’s Hamlet, though I would have preferred to name it Anya Hamlet or the Other Hamlet.  

One may believe reading my afore comments that I must have disliked the efforts of Banerjee and his team. On the contrary the entire production is up for high appreciation. Sumit Kumar Roy’s mounting of the script did keep a very steady rhythm. The use of Gertrude’s portraiture in the form of a queen in a pack of cards or the use of the cape bearing a cross show the innovativeness of the maker. He got good support from Bappa’s stage planning and his limited use of lights. Partha Pratim Roy’s music helped to build up the required mood.

In a play like this one both the actors had to be in perfect complement with one another otherwise the entire effort would fall flat. Readers might well understand why I wrote who 'can act’ in my opening remarks. The experienced Banerjee as Abhay and the promising Roy as Hemant were faultless in defining their own spaces. What is commendable is that the two characters are built up keeping a very fine balance, where Tom/Abhay in the beginning is ahead in the power of balance, but gradually gives way to Simon/Hemant, as the play progresses. This is very well portrayed by the two actors and that gives the viewing a pleasure.