The Shakespeare's Globe from London came from Bahamas to Havana with its production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Commemorating the 450 birthday anniversary of the great English poet, drama writer and actor, born on April 23, 1564 and who died on that same date but in 1616, the British group has set the purpose of representing that work in some 205 countries through a tour that will last until April 2016.

It is not by accident that Havana has been included among the lucky host-nations and once again our capital city thereby enriches its history and cultural heritage, while people from the theater and theater-loving citizens, from all walks of life, and professions and from all sections of the population, enjoyed such opportunity.

This Hamlet is characterized by an austerity in the use of visual resources. Twelve traveling trunks of various sizes, some boards, and a curtain ready to slide down by a rope when it was deem necessary to define and use the backstage space. All those elements were sufficient enough to create the various spaces where the action of the tragedy takes places.

Twelve actors were in charge of representing the various characters. The scene on the stage lasts almost three hours and it is developed under a similar tone to light the one illuminating the theater pit—which is never off— while supporting the illusion that we are in one of the functions of The Globe in times of Shakespeare and the so called Elizabethan theater, in broad daylight, agreeing at the same time with the projection of theatrical convention, an essential aspect of the aesthetics of all the arts.

The performance fairly displays the craft nature of theater art and develops its gearing mechanism, in a coherent way, on the spectator in a dialogue with the theatrical convention.

Therefore, only a few trunks—part of the same are used to store and move with costume clothes, utilities and set designs—and some tables will serve to define the external spaces of the castle itself; one player dressed discreetly will represent the ghost of Hamlet's father: the murdered king requesting justice; to the basic clothes of the actors they just only add some accurate pieces to collaborate in the representation of their characters. And the term representation is equally decisive in this aesthetic, because it is exactly what it deals with: to represent, to pretend to be, to play being someone. Therefore, when Polonius is killed through the curtain at the hands of Hamlet, to remove the corpse from the scene you only have to lift him by his armpits and dragged him just two steps backwards, then immediately the immediate action is stopped, there is a rupture and both players leave the scene on their feet.

The representation has to deal, at the same time, with the fact of contending with a known history and giving the spectator a place in the co-creation of the show—the theater as a game—because from light suggestions the imagination of the audience is stimulated, being the imagination what completes the images.

It also outlined the versatility of the performers, who, additionally, play the music that is also responsible for making the work more attractive for they play the instruments, sing and dance, all of which contributes to recover an expensive notion: that of the theater company, the theater done as a collective work.

I thank Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to be able to watch again an overcrowded Mella Theater enjoying not only the dance, but also the theater show, as did happen in some other moments that today are landmarks in the contemporary history of the Cuban Theater: Santa Camila de La Habana Vieja (1961), Fuenteovejuna (1963), Maria Antonia (1967), Andoba (1979), Yerma (1980). I bet for the complete recovery of the theater and the public, so the dialogue between them can grow and be maintained and we can have again a vibrant scene in its diversity.

Translation: Mariana Rodríguez (Cubarte)