Turning Hamlet into Dance Theatre — An Interview with Guillaume Côté

What’s the definition of a successful mixture? What about Robert Lepage, Canada’s preeminent visionary man of theatre, acclaimed choreographer/dancer Guillaume Côté, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet?

Lepage and Côté have united once more to create the dance theatre piece, The Tragedy of HAMLET Prince of Denmark, that makes its world premiere on the Elgin Theatre on April 3 (closing on April 7). The primary time these two vivid lights collaborated, their fertile minds produced the much-acclaimed Body by Body for the Nationwide Ballet of Canada in 2018, their sensible homage to Canadian movie innovator, Norman McLaren.

What follows is an in-depth interview with Côté concerning the Hamlet venture, which reveals that this new dance theatre is a wholly totally different beast than the technology-rich Body by Body.

Our dialog discovered Côté in his automobile, which, apparently, is his favorite place to Zoom. By the way, Côté solid himself as Hamlet.

I’d like to return to the very starting. How did you first meet Lepage?

After I noticed his sensible manufacturing of The Nightingale and Different Brief Fables that he did for the Canadian Opera Firm in 2009, I began to stalk him.

In 2012, I used to be awarded the Médaille de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec, which introduced me to Québec Metropolis. His firm Ex Machina relies there, so I wrote to him at his studio, and despatched him a video of my piece In Contact. Oddly, the primary time we truly met in individual was at a café in Toronto.

Over time, we remained in touch, and he began to come back to see my choreographies. We then started to speak about the potential of maybe collaborating collectively.

After I approached him about doing a manufacturing for the Nationwide, he was nervous about working with ballet. Then got here the four-hundredth anniversary of Québec Metropolis, and Norman McLaren was one of many featured artists. Robert noticed simply how a lot of McLaren’s work was dance-driven, which acquired him inquisitive about doing a bit with me about McLaren and the Nationwide Movie Board.

I approached the Nationwide’s then inventive director, Karen Kain, and she or he was wonderful, giving us the funds for eight Nationwide dancers to do a one-week workshop on the Ex Machina studio, and many good concepts emerged. Over the subsequent three years, we slowly constructed the piece Body by Body by a collection of workshops.

Over time, Robert and I began to hang around collectively. He’s so well-known, but, so humble. What a beneficiant, candy man he’s, and naturally, we began to speak about what our subsequent collaboration may very well be.

And that led to Hamlet.

Robert has staged quite a few productions of Hamlet worldwide, and has carried out the position himself. In 2016, he even collaborated with some Russian artists to create a one-man present of the play that he directed.

I approached him a couple of collaboration after we had been engaged on Body by Body as a result of he is aware of Hamlet so properly. He was excited concerning the play’s potential as dance theatre, as nonverbal expression.

The place was your place to begin?

A creator must ask lots of questions. We did analysis into Danish historical past and Elsinore, after which it was a deep dive into Shakespeare’s textual content. We learn the play collectively, then we learn traces to one another like actors would. Robert has a profound data of the play, and we dissected each facet of it.

For instance, Claudius’ traces comprise many S’s which inform his character, whereas Polonius’ imagery is concerning the eye, so he’s at all times watching. Robert identified that the punctuation was not from Shakespeare’s time, so, for instance, transfer one comma in “To be, or to not be”, and you’ve got a distinct that means.

Robert sees the play as being based mostly on a cranium — that the play is constructed on a human cranium and a human face, and a person holding a cranium. That’s on the coronary heart of the play’s construction.

However creation turned out to be a bumpy street.

Robert had a tough few years. He was accused of cultural appropriation, first for his present SLĀV, about Afro-American slavery, after which Kanata, about Indigenous individuals and settlers. SLĀV in Montreal was cancelled mid-run, whereas Kanata by no means made it to the stage in Paris. Though Robert stood his floor towards these woke accusations, he grew to become gun shy about telling different individuals’s tales. He actually questioned if we had been in secure territory with Hamlet as a result of he was a Danish prince. As an alternative he labored on two different productions, one about wrestling and the opposite a circus present, earlier than coming again to Hamlet.

I perceive that this manufacturing is low tech, whereas Lepage is understood for his sensible use of expertise. It is a actual departure.

Robert’s strategy this time was to create a bit from the naked necessities. His premise is that dance is highly effective when it doesn’t need to compete with the rest. It’s a theatrical narrative strategy emphasizing motion.

How would you describe the dance?

The choreography itself is solely and precisely geared to inform the story. Each motion, each gesture, is charged with that means, and brought from Shakespeare’s textual content. We’re telling a really sophisticated story by each up to date and classical dance.

We might have been summary, which is a really updated, fashionable instances factor to do, which, fairly frankly, is the route that I wished to take, however Robert satisfied me to go conventional, again to Elizabethan instances, again to the textual content, besides we don’t have any phrases. The story is infused within the choreography, and John Gzowski’s great unique rating underlines that physicality.

You say that the textual content generated motion. What do you imply?

The phrases themselves — Shakespeare’s photos —created the dance. While you learn the textual content, you see the dance in your head. The delicate shifts and modifications of Hamlet’s thoughts — is his insanity manipulative, or is it actual — all translate into motion.

The story goes past the dialogue to lend itself to bodily storytelling.

Let’s discuss the way you and Lepage have offered the character of Hamlet.

Merely put, Hamlet is in his head, interpreted by the virtuosity of ballet. He’s a person consumed by doubt, who is maybe descending into insanity after his father dies underneath suspicious circumstances. The dance is an expression of his internal contradictions and paradoxes. We’re all confronted with decisions in life, whether or not to do proper or improper, and should at all times settle for the results of our actions.

How do you see the manufacturing as a complete?

We pull the viewers right into a world of deception, the place phantoms and people mingle on a minimalist set. It’s a metaphorical reinterpretation that connects the motion of the physique with what might or is probably not lurking inside the corners of the thoughts. Hamlet stays a deep mirror to human expertise, and by gaining a deeper understanding of his character, we are able to admire the significance of taking motion to handle the issues of humanity.

What are a number of the low tech options?

There’s as a lot choreography behind the stage as on the stage, with seven techies creating the magic. The visionary lighting is an enormous issue, and that’s the place Robert’s visible signature has actually made its mark.

The dancers change the units, turning tables right into a coffin, for instance, or mirrors right into a hallway, so the identical components are used for various issues by creating totally different variations. The ghost of Hamlet’s father is a mattress sheet, however how it’s used is a marvel. There’s a easy skeleton, however the impact is thrilling. We even have some drops, and a props curtain like an old school Italian present.

It was refreshing utilizing solely the naked requirements. Additionally, this implies we now have a one-day arrange, so we are able to tour anyplace.

Inform me concerning the dancers.

There are 9 in all, together with myself. It was essential that the characters be age applicable — so no sticking on of a beard — with the choreography adjusted to the dancers’ skills. For instance, Bernard Meney who’s Polonius is 70. Robert Glumbek as Claudius is 50, and so is retired Nationwide principal dancer, Greta Hodgkinson, who’s Gertrude. Laertes, alternatively, is carried out by younger Lukas Malkowski who’s a break dancer.

After I choreographed Body by Body, the dancers had been unified, all from the identical ballet firm. With Hamlet, we now have all ages and totally different dance kinds.

What has the creation course of been like?

We each work in one another’s turf, staging, directing, choreographing. I’m so grateful that the work course of has been so great.

What’s it wish to choreograph for your self?

I suppose I gave myself the main position as a result of it’s my final hurrah. I’m 41, and retiring from the Nationwide subsequent season. However Hamlet can also be very troublesome to bounce, and I’m reminded about one thing that Nureyev stated — that since he was making the position for himself, why did he make it so arduous?

You probably did a efficiency of Hamlet final summer time at Le Pageant des Arts de Saint-Sauveur, the place you might be inventive director. How a lot of that manufacturing survives?

This Hamlet is a very totally different present. One of many new options is that John has recorded the rating as an alternative of getting reside devices. He used actual musicians within the recording which contains a cello, violin, guitar, a hurdy-gurdy and a few electronica. It’s sensible.

What would you like the viewers to remove from this dance theatre?

That it’s lovely to see one thing by a distinct lens. That Hamlet has multiple story to inform.

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