HamletO\u2019Reilly Theatre, Dublin 1\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t think you\u2019re going to see that Hamlet,\u201d someone says early on in this exhilarating production from the Peruvian company Teatro La Plaza. Fair warning. Some of the greatest hits do appear. There is engagement with \u201cTo be or not to be.\u201d Ophelia meets a damp demise. The stage ends up littered with bodies.<\/p>\n
But Chela De Ferrari, directing and writing in close collaboration with her cast, is using the text as a lever to prize open the challenges of living with Down syndrome. The actors all have that condition. Each appears to be working their own experience in with those attending the medieval court of Elsinore.<\/p>\n
Arriving at a time when, thanks to (rebuffed) suggestions that Shakespeare no longer be compulsory for higher-level Leaving Cert students, there is much discussion of that writer\u2019s relevance, Teatro La Plaza confirms that Hamlet retains multitudes for anyone anatomising the human condition.<\/p>\n
In particular, the show suggests the younger characters share the frustration of people with Down syndrome at not being trusted to be themselves. Ximena Rodr\u00edguez, as Ophelia, fastens upon the notion of her father, Polonius, that she is \u201cspecial\u201d (long a patronising term for the neurodivergent).<\/p>\n
![\"Dublin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SKPQ26ZVYLLENJ5AORZ6ARORRE.jpg\")
Dublin Theatre Festival 2025: Teatro La Plaza\u2019s production of Hamlet. Photograph: Leon Farrell\/Photocall Ireland ![\"Dublin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ESRO4QNYJ2UOLIDNBFRLOQXAMY.jpg\")
Dublin Theatre Festival 2025: Ximena Rodriguez and Octavio Bernaza in Teatro La Plaza\u2019s production of Hamlet. Photograph: Leon Farrell\/Photocall Ireland <\/p>\n
Why is she that? Because she has \u201c47 chromosomes\u201d? The discussion of Shakespeare\u2019s best-known soliloquy drifts towards an assertion of the cast\u2019s often denied potentialities.<\/p>\n
All of which makes this Hamlet, played in Spanish with English surtitles, sound like a bit of a trial. It is nothing of the sort. Though deeply serious in its intentions, the piece is a riot of fun from self-aware introduction to closing communal celebrations.<\/p>\n
We begin with faintly chilling footage of a baby being born and then having its head measured. The cast are here to explain that, although they may sometimes be slow in saying their lines, it is worth waiting for those words to arrive. So it proves.<\/p>\n
The titular role is shared among the actors, beginning with Jaime Cruz as a playful incarnation suffering inquisition from another cast member about whether we\u2019re talking to Hamlet, Jaime or, possibly, \u201cJaimelet\u201d. De Ferrari constructs, from key speeches, a raw scaffolding on which she hangs rich, often profane set-pieces.<\/p>\n
[\u00a0Hamlet starring actors with Down syndrome: \u2018It profoundly reconfigures the meaning of to be or not to be?\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n There are tricky layers to the famous play within a play, including a suggestion that (stay with me) the real audience\u2019s reaction to what they\u2019re watching may, as is the case with Claudius, reveal some uncomfortable truths.<\/p>\n The \u201cTo be or not to be\u201d sequence does wonders with anxiety of influence, beginning before projections of well-known former performers and, after a recorded celebrity interview that we shan\u2019t spoil, forcing the current Hamlet to shadow a giant Laurence Olivier in his legendary 1948 film. We are then invited to vote on whether this is a fair way of approaching the speech.<\/p>\n At times the construction does feel a little like a paternoster of related sketches. Not everything works so well as a lyrical death of Ophelia. But the defiant close is enough to bring a few dozen members of the audience on stage for a massed dance with the charming, committed cast.<\/p>\n Runs at O\u2019Reilly Theatre<\/a>, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival<\/a>, until Saturday, September 27th <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HamletO\u2019Reilly Theatre, Dublin 1\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606 \u201cDon\u2019t think you\u2019re going to see that Hamlet,\u201d someone says early on in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[57812,43857,18,117,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-88059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dtf","9":"tag-dublin-theatre-festival","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}