Hamlet (Marchioro, 1992)

Hamlet

The production of Hamlet (1992) was part of a larger project idealized and concretized by the Brazilian director Marcelo Marchioro, in Curitiba PR, entitled Shakespeare no Parque (Shakespeare in the Park), which aimed at popularizing Shakespeare for Brazilian audiences. The enterprise, which included lectures, workshops and other educational activities for actors and the general public, also included the mounting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1991). The alternative space where Hamlet was performed, a large auditorium situated in São Lourenço Park, was totally remodeled for the production, with the creation of a sort of re-mediated Elizabethan stage. The spectacle explored political and ideological issues current at the time and, coincidentally, it premièred on 20^th August 1992, one month before the impeachment of Fernando Collor de Mello, the first president elected directly by the people after the end of the Brazilian military government.  To portray the nation’s state of degradation, the director and set designer idealized a muddy set with numerous blood pools, as well as several pieces of junk scattered around, representing the disintegration of Brazilian political institutions. To express the Brazilianness of the spectacle, the director strategically positioned big, original Petrobrás oil barrels, painted green, white and blue, the colors of the Brazilian flag, to suggests the parapets of the castle and provide a link between the issues foregrounded in the appropriated classic text and the local, prevailing circumstances. The dark, bizarre and grotesque atmosphere created discomfort among the spectators who realized the implications of the comparison between Elsinore and Brazil, because the setting alluded to the famous phrase “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark” which was understood “Brazil.”

Credits

Conception and Direction:  Marcelo Marchioro

Assistant Director: Elyana Garrido Joerke

Dramaturgy: Celina Alvetti

Dramaturgy Assistants: Ursula Migon, Cintya Andrea Floriani, Mara Rejane Ruschel

Production: Andiara Zuccherelli

Translation: Anna Amélia Carneiro de Mendonça

Vocal training and body movement: Sandra Tacahashi

Costumes: Tony Silveira

Scenography: Tony Silveira

Sountrack: Marcelo Marchioro, inspired by Alfred Schnittke

Makeup: Collective creation

Lighting: Beto Bruel

Props: Marisa Lima Westphalen

Fencing techniques: Ronaldo Vatson Schwantes

Cast (by entrance order)

Horatio: Álvaro Bittencourt

Barnardo: Luiz Henrique de Nadai

Francisco: Luciano Gonzaga

Marcellus: Edson Rocha

Ghost: Sansores França

King Claudius: Zeca Cenovicz

Voltemand: Alessandro Cavazzani

Cornelius: Luciano Gonzaga

Laertes: Marcio Mattana

Polonius: Gô Küster

Hamlet: Joelson Medeiros

Queen Gertrude: Regina Bastos

Ophelia 1: Giovana Soar

Ophelia 2: Erica Migon

Reynaldo: Luciano Gonzaga

Rosencrantz: Edson Rocha

Guildenstern: Ranieri Gonzalez

First player (actor-king): Sansores França

Player (actor-queen): Marcio Mattana

Player (prologue): Luiz Henrique de Nadai

Player (Lucianus): Alessandro Cavazzani

Fortinbras: Luciano Gonzaga

Captain: Alessandro Cavazzani

Courtier: Luiz Henrique de Nadai

Gentleman: Ranieri Gonzalez

Sailor: Luiz Henrique de Nadai

Osric: Alessandro Cavazzani

First Gravedigger: Gô Küster

Second Gravedigger: Ranieri Gonzalez

Third Gravedigger: Luiz Henrique de Nadai

First Ambassador: Luiz Henrique de Nadai

Courtier: Gô Küster

Voice: Joelson Medeiros

Angel: Alessandro Cavazzani

Articles

CAMATI, A. S. Historicização e antropofagia: recriações de Hamlet por Marcelo Marchioro e Jessé Oliveira. In: CAMATI, A. S.; MIRANDA, Célia Arns de (orgs). Hamlet no Brasil. Curitiba: Editora da UFPR, 2019. p. 141-167.

Production notes provided by Anna Stegh Camati