Spier theatre: I Lord Hamlet
4 October at 10:00; 9 October at 18:30 and 11 October at 13:30
Venue: HMS Bloemhof school hall
Imagine before you a stage cluttered with the most unlikely combination of objects: Pots and pans, a tube TV, a box of eggs, and a bottle of wine. There’s also a radio, a dish of butter, and even that old overhead projector you might distantly remember once using in a primary school classroom. Then a single spotlight finds a man plucking at the strings of a cello, and within moments, you’re hooked.
Carlo Daniels wrote and stars in I Lord Hamlet, his debut at Woordfees. Inspired by the work of Robin Malan and joined onstage by cellist Jannous Aukema, he moves between many characters, taking a timeless story and making it feel brand new. PHOTO: Supplied/Woordfees
Written by and starring Carlo Daniels, I Lord Hamlet strikes the perfect balance between a modern story and the Shakespeare classic that inspired it. Daniels has truly found a way to take a timeless story and make it feel brand new.
Everything about this piece feels intentional. The set leaves you with something new to discover around every turn. What looks like clutter at the start turns out to be a stage full of tools – each one waiting for its moment to be used.
But what hits the hardest in this production comes down to Daniels’s acting and how brilliantly he switches between so many different characters. Through his physicality, you can clearly see which one he is playing; you are never once confused about who is who. His emotional range makes each role just as moving to watch.
Live music from cellist Jannous Aukema runs throughout, his sounds layered and looped beneath Daniels’s performance. They only stop when he has something else to do, like when the overhead projector becomes a canvas. Daniels stands in front of it, delivering one of his many intense monologues, with a spotlight on him and blue light filling every other crevice of the stage.
When Aukema places a large container of water on top of the projector, the entire set looks suddenly as though it’s underwater, Daniels bathed in its ripples as he speaks. Words can’t capture what a moment like that does to an audience. You simply have to experience it.
Together, Daniels and Aukema craft the entire atmosphere of the set right in front of you. It was a pleasure, really, to watch a show that knew exactly how to use everything it had at its disposal.
When the show ends, every object on the stage has been used.
Every sound you could imagine has been drawn out of that incessant cello. The static from the tube TV is still glaring at you. Daniels sits to the side, lost in conversation and unaware that you are still there, still watching. You jump to your feet in applause, because there is simply no other choice for a production that has given you its all, in its barest form.