Document kept at Odin Teatret Archives, Fonds Odin Teatret, Series Perf-B, Binder 19 Theatrum Mundi: Ur-Hamlet Erik Exe Christoffersen Odin Teatret’s multicultural performance Ur-Hamlet (2006) was based on Saxo Grammaticus’s tale Vita Amlethi, from Gesta Danorum (c. 1200). This is a raw drama of revenge and the source of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1601) which emphasises the barbarian basis for self-reflection in Hamlet. Ur-Hamlet is a result of Odin Teatret’s interest in both the performance as an encounter with the spectator and the cooperation between actors from different traditions as part of the development of a “professional identity”. Ninety performers of 30 different nationalities were involved in the production whose rehearsals took place in various phases. These began at sessions of the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) in Sevilla in 2004 and Wroclaw in 2005 and continued in Holstebro, Copenhagen and Bali in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The final rehearsals took place in Ravenna, ITALY, where the production premiered in July 2006, after which it was performed in Denmark in Holstebro and at Kronborg (Hamlet’s) Castle in Elsinore in August 2006. Only in the final phase were all NINETY players involved 1, creating a global and political context. My focus in this article is the political, theatrical and cultural strategies that the process and performance express. I will consider the performance in relation to its creation as a process involving theatre as a profession and in relation to the spectators, the place of the performance, the tradition of 1 As a basis for this article, I observed the rehearsals in Ravenna and at Kronborg. In this article, I refer to the final version performed at Kronborg. Hamlet, and the local and global context. On a number of levels the staging makes use of foreignness and the “plague” as pivotal elements in a dramaturgy that creates Disorder 2 – the perceptual disorientation of the spectator, who, as it were, is thrown off balance. 3 My viewpoint is that Ur- Hamlet represents archaic theatre within modern theatre. Odin Teatret may be regarded as culturally and politically un-modern, which is not the same as being anti-modern. Odin Teatret was established in 1964 by Italian-born Eugenio Barba (1936) and some young Norwegian would-be actors. The theatre group moved from Oslo to Holstebro in 1966, and Barba later became a Danish citizen. Their performances have been of an experimental nature and have concerned foreignness as a fundamental condition in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. But they have also dealt with the heritage from the irony of romanticism as well as from the rhythmic and the dynamic, or what Nietzsche called the Dionysian. Eugenio Barba created ISTA in 1979 to carry out comparative research on the performer’s technique, and since then he has explored principles for dynamic scenic presence and behaviour in various theatre traditions. In continuation of this work, he created the basis for several multicultural performances with the Theatrum Mundi Ensemble. One of their common themes is trespassing: a transgression of the traditional theatrical boundary between stage and spectator. 4 The theatre’s performances are created with unfamiliar theatrical means of expression that can also be enjoyed by spectators who do not understand the language, and they can be performed all over the world without all the spectators necessarily having the same understanding of the performance. Odin Teatret is a world theatre that is neither nationally nor locally oriented, but both at the same time. At a social 2 Eugenio Barba, 2004. Barba makes use of Disorder to indicate an unexpected penetration of energy. 3 Cf. the poster from Odin Teatret’s 40th anniversary, which shows a drawing previously issued in TTT (Teatrets teori og teknikk, no. 22, 1974: Breve til min fars hus (Letters to my father’s house)). It is a drawing of a seven-year-old girl, describing Odin Teatret’s performance Min fars hus (My father’s house) (1972). 4 Cultural encounters constitute a recurrent theme for Odin Teatret, from the principle of barter to performances like Come! And the Day will be Ours (1976), Millionen (1978), Talabot (1988) and Kaosmos (1992). The encounter between cultures has also been the topic of urban site-specific performances like Vandstier (1991) in Holstebro. The conflict between cultures has had both a comic and tragic character in most cases, but criticism of the fear of foreignness and Western tendency to erase differences has probably been the most recurrent theme. Various metaphors are also used by Odin Teatret, such as the traveler, the anthropologist, the emigrant, the refugee and the foreigner. level, the themes revolve around transgression and a lack of boundaries – as in Kaosmos (1992), which describes the consequences of artificial national boundaries and especially the disintegration of these. Also the boundary between fiction and life is a central dimension in Odin Teatret, which is largely a “threshold theatre” situated at the margin. 5 A brief definition of terms is appropriate at this point, since globalization has spawned various concepts for interaction, distinguishing between the multi-, inter- and transcultural. The multicultural means that various cultures live side by side, sometimes in ghetto-like environments , without any actual interaction. In Ur-Hamlet the various theatre traditions are not integrated, but remain independent even though they interact within a common context. The intercultural designates a dialogue between cultures, the distinctiveness of each of which is respected. In Ur-Hamlet the palimpsest between Saxo’s text and Shakespeare’s is a kind of intercultural dialogue between the “dark” and self-reflective Renaissance which is placed in the perspective of globalised modernity. The transcultural designates an interaction at a particular level where original culture is abandoned in favour of a new one. As Barba describes it, his theatre has created a culture where he himself chooses his cousins, uncles and grandparents. In his view, the transcultural is the pre-expressive or the dynamic level of the performer’s presence. Ur-Hamlet thus contains aspects of all three definitions of culture. The performance The play, which lasts a little more than an hour, is performed in the castle courtyard at Kronborg in an arena stage with six platforms (see drawing) surrounded by the architecture of the castle. The dark walls, large windows, towers and spires embrace the space of the performance. Kronborg is a Renaissance castle from the end of the sixteenth century, rebuilt several times and associated with Shakespeare’s Hamlet . Even though Kronborg is not 5 Jane Turner’s Eugenio Barba (Routledge 2004) provides a valuable introduction to Odin Teatret. mentioned in Hamlet, it takes place in Elsinore and the castle is thus concrete and a mental framework for Ur-Hamlet , and of course it creates a special mood amongst the spectators and background for the actual performance along with the more or less coincidental elements that play a role: the weather, cries of seagulls, the darkness that falls and the burning torches in the performance that transform the space to shadows. The tradition of Hamlet and the castle contribute to Ur-Hamlet and a stage has already been created for which the actual stage emerges as a stage within the stage. This establishes a reference to the stage in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the players’ scene has a simplicity reminiscent of Ur-Hamlet ’s. The theatricality of the performance is thus already explicit and part of the performance. The empty stage has a theatrical quality and is a code that makes the spectators “see” the rooms of the court even though chairs, tables, carpets, walls and so forth are absent. The empty stage is a modern theatre convention that calls attention to the performers’ stylized movements, which at the beginning of the play are especially influenced by Balinese Gambuh, court theatre dance from the fifteenth century. In the middle are a small dais and a well. The orchestra and the choir sit on platforms. The stage is illuminated by over 50 torches placed on the ground, their light intensified by bowls filled with water. 6 Looking closely, one can see that the entire space of Theatrum Mundi is reflected in these in a reverse distorted image : the world as a theatre or the theatre’s world as a distorted reflection of the world. The play makes use of Saxo’s tale written in Latin and fragments of the text are recited in Latin by Saxo, who is the storyteller in the performance. Some of the lines are translated into English, serving to wreck the illusion, but otherwise the performance is primarily “told” through song, dance and props in the space. The eight scenes offer a brief description of the play (cf. the programme): 6The effect of the burning candles was similarly intensified in the Renaissance. 1. Saxo, the munk, digs into the dark ages and unearths the tale of Hamlet, ruler of Jutland. 2. Orvendil, Hamlet’s father, is murdered by his brother Fengi. Fengi seizes power and marries Gerutha, Orvendel’s widow and mother of Hamlet. 3. Hamlet pretends to be mad in order to conceal his plan for vengeance. 4. The castle is infiltrated by foreigners from distant lands. 5. Fengi lets Hamlet meet a girl in order to test his madness. He believes madmen are impotent. 6. The queen of the rats (the plague) arrives at the castle. 7. Fengi’s counsellor hides to listen to the conversation between Hamlet and his mother. 8. Hamlet takes his revenge and proclaims the laws of a new order. Ur-Hamlet begins at dusk with a trumpet fanfare. The music and choir songs are composed by Frans Winther and consist of Balinese gambuh and gamelan orchestras, a solo Indian flute, candomblé drums and percussion and Western instruments (guitar, trumpet, accordion).