Levan Tsuladze’s Concept of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”

Georgian theater is rich with performances of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. In the last period, Georgian viewers saw many interesting interpretations of “Hamlet”. In 2010, two diff erent concepts of “Hamlet” by world-famous Lithuanian directors, Nekrošius and Korsunovas, were shown at Tbilisi International Theater Festival. Georgian audience was impressed by both performances, especially by Nekrošius. Robert Sturua showed Georgian audience two editions of “Hamlet” at the Rustaveli Theater. In recent years, on the scenes of Tbilisi, we have seen interpretations of “Hamlet”, seen by Georgian directors from a completely new angle. I mean “My Hamlet” by Beso Kupreishvili on the small stage of the Marjanishvili Theater and “Hamlet.ComX” staged by young director Levan Khvichia on the experimental stage of Rustaveli Theater, “Hamlet” by Davit Mgebrishvili at Poti Theater, “Hamlet” by Guram Matskhonashvili in talternative he space.
Problems of Shakespeare’s characters do not belong to the distant past. They always live in minds and behavioral forms of people, that’s why they are so close to viewers of all times and nationalities. The function of the theater is to revive these dramas, which means that they may be transferred and refl ected in familiar national, political or social contexts.
Levan Tsuladze off ered another interesting version of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to Georgian viewers. Among the plays of the great playwright “Hamlet” is perhaps the most philosophical play and the hardest one to
be staged. Shakespeareologists claim that Hamlet’s character is most close to Shakespeare himself: by his tragic worldview, philosophical perception of existence, understanding of inevitable and continuous connection between the past and the future. According to the concept of Levan Tsuladze, the world is drawn in a whirlpool dirt and fi lth. That is why all the action of the play is developed in a laundry room located in a basement. The dirty world needs cleansing and renewal.
During the adaptation of the play Lasha Bugadze and Levan Tsuladze made certain changes, cut or moved some parts of the text, reduced the number of characters, combined some characters into one. For example, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are at the same time offi cers, soldiers, and gravediggers. The ghost of Hamlet’s father and the actor are performed by one actor. In the performance, it’s not the troupe that comes to Elsinore Castle, but only one actor. Replacement of accents changes characters of the personages.