Audiences stayed away from this Hamlet. But then word got out ...

Sydney Morning Herald

2 days ago

It all began with a staff meeting. For years, Teatro La Plaza director Chela De Ferrari had been mulling a production of Hamlet but had no luck finding an actor to anchor it. Then, during a meeting, theatre usher Jaime Cruz announced his desire to act, and something sparked for De Ferrari. She invited him for coffee.
'During that conversation, I suddenly saw him wearing the prince's crown,' she says. 'I imagined those iconic words, 'To be or not to be', spoken by someone whose very right to be in public, artistic, and professional spaces is so often questioned. It changed everything.
'What if this role wasn't meant to be held by one iconic actor, but rather to be shared — to become a collective voice?'
Cruz, like almost every actor in Peruvian theatre company Teatro La Plaza's Hamlet, has Down syndrome. He is Hamlet, but so are all the other seven actors at various stages of the play. Through a year-long workshop and performances around the globe, the production, which comes to Melbourne's Rising festival next month, has become much more than a Shakespearian adaption. Performed in Spanish with English subtitles, it showcases the talents and dreams of its cast, using their experiences to shape the content of the play.
'Unlike a traditional casting process, we weren't searching for polished performances or technical precision,' De Ferrari says. 'Quite the opposite. We deliberately embraced traits that would usually be seen as obstacles in conventional theatre: difficulty vocalising, stuttering, extended silences, blank moments or shifts in rhythm.'
She explains that the production wasn't looking to 'fix' these traits, but rather incorporate them into the script and the action. De Ferrari was careful to ensure that the company understood the 'nature and intention' of the play on which they were all collaborating.
'If participants were unable to grasp the creative and conceptual framework of the production, the process could have veered into representation without agency,' she says. 'Our goal was not simply to include neurodiverse actors, but to co-create a piece of theatre in which their perspectives, experiences and choices held real authorship.'
At one point, three Ophelias share the stage, and their dreams. One wants to live independently, work, and buy her parents dinner with her very own credit card. Another wants to meet a boy online and then go to Mars with him, and the third wants to have eight children with her boyfriend and watch them grow up to become Hamlet.
'For a moment, they weren't just interpreting a character — they were reshaping her, infusing her with their own voices,' De Ferrari says.
Hamlet himself also has many forms, and the production twists and turns and moves and entertains in endlessly surprising ways. Audiences are told that the production is 'inclusive' and there's no mandate to be quiet, or stay seated, or not look at your phone. At New York's Lincoln Centre, there was even a chill-out zone in case the Bard became too much.
De Ferrari says while some audience members used to more traditional theatre might baulk initially, they usually come around.
'[The inclusive performance] creates a kind of mirror. The freedom that exists on stage is reflected in the audience, and vice versa. We're not just performing a play – we're sharing a space where different ways of being are fully welcomed. That mutual recognition is one of the most powerful aspects of the experience.'
Towards the end of the play, there is a beautiful moment of audience participation that powerfully illustrates the way this cast has worked to subvert expectations and ideas about Down syndrome. It is one of those special experiences that good theatre is all about, creating connection, empathy and understanding of lives and emotions the audience might not otherwise be able to access.
'The result is often hilarious — but also moving,' De Ferrari says. 'The audience laughs, relaxes, learns. They're being gently invited to let go of control and see the world through someone else's eyes. What began as a comic interaction ends up offering a reflection on who usually gets to be in the spotlight — and who is asked to stand still and stay quiet.'
Video, live music, pre-recorded sound, projection, choreography and audience interaction are all seamlessly incorporated by the cast, who work together and on their own to command the stage with true authority and talent.
Throughout, Shakespeare's words and plot are merged with the words, hopes and dreams of the cast. This Hamlet is less a tragedy and more a tale of rebirth. To assemble this cast and tell this story is a masterful feat, one that De Ferrari says took a full year of 'improvisation, writing and reflecting'.
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'Each actor specialised in one character, studying and embodying them through drawings, songs and personal memories. From there, we shaped the script. I would write drafts at home and bring them into rehearsal, where we'd test them and refine them together,' she says.
That process allowed for every voice to be heard. De Ferrari says early audiences weren't sure what to make of the show when it debuted in Lima, Peru, in 2019.
'Some people told us they celebrated the fact that we were doing this play ... but didn't feel comfortable attending. Ticket sales were slow. But by the third week, the theatre was full thanks in part to the community of families, parents and organisations who truly understood the significance of the project but also because of word of mouth. Every person who saw the play left the theatre recommending it with energy and enthusiasm.'
Since then, Hamlet has toured Europe, Asia, North and South America and the United Kingdom. Melbourne is next.
'Bringing Hamlet to Melbourne as part of Rising is a profound honour for us,' De Ferrari says. 'We are also thrilled to explore Melbourne itself – a city celebrated for its rich arts scene, and diverse culinary offerings ... as Peruvians, we are always interested in discovering new culinary experiences.'
In the meantime, De Ferrari and her cast are also adapting Twelfth Night, using the same process.
'We want to explore love in all its forms, as well as the complexity of sibling relationships – especially when one sibling has a disability and the other does not. In our story, one of the twins has Down syndrome, and the other is neurotypical.'
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De Ferrari says the goal with both productions is to reimagine Shakespeare and use those well-known narratives as a springboard for new ones.