by Elliot D Huxtable
We finished our last blog with our own talk at the Armenian Shakespeare Conference. This next blog continues with that Saturday afternoon - the day we made it big on Armenian television!
We were invited, by the organiser of the ASC, to appear with her on NUR TV on “Good Morning Armenia”, which is not dissimilar to our very own Good Morning Britain but with a merciful lack of Ricahrd Maddeley.
We were taken by taxi (everyone gets taxis everywhere in Yerevan, through the government’s own form of the Uber app, and it’s all very efficient, and cheap - often costing less than £2 to get across the capital) to the studio, a small but rather flashy affair right at the top of the capital, with beautiful vistas across both Yerevan and the surrounding countryside.
After make-up and wardrobe (well, they did make us up, and took our coats), we were run through the questions quickly and efficiently by the host of the programme, Armine Tovmasyan who was incredibly kind and generous with her time before we went on.
The programme was recorded “as live” - so although it wasn’t broadcast until the Sunday, we went straight through without any breaks (so as to make it easier on the editors). It was quite a bewildering experience, having Armine speak to us in Armenian, then having our wonderful translator and Conference host, Dr. Jasmine Seymour, translate it into English. Charlotte and I took turns in answering, concisely, in English so that Jasmine could then translate them back into Armenian for the benefits of the viewers at home.
For me, that, and the fact that there was a TV directly in my eyeline so I could see precisely what they were focusing on at any time, was the most distracting thing. But it was exhilarating in a very similar way to performing on stage is - the “liveness” of the event was akin to that rush you get in front of an audience. It was also very much terrifying in the same way!
Then, in the evening, we went to the premier of Hamlet at the Yerevan Drama Theatre. This was a very interesting production, with a female Hamlet ably played by Lidia Grigoryan, in a wonderful set with als sorts of steampunk pipes and valves. There was a wonderful use of steam in various parts of the production, as well as a working shower and bath that were put to a brilliant finale for Ophelia’s death. Claudius drowned her in the bathtub, with much kicking and splashing of water, and it was a truly shocking moment.
The production was entirely in Armenian, without subtitles like Romeo & Juliet, but thanks to the fact that Charlotte had played the part back in November ‘23 and I had directed that production meant that we were able to parse what was happening (more or less), although there were some interesting liberties made with the script, including an aggressively confrontational Guildenstern, an almost mute Gertrude and a end fight with fire buckets and spades.
A particular highlight was the scene with the gravedigger - skulls had been bestrewn all over the stage, and these were, quite literally, bowled straight down the middle of the stage, shattering against the back wall. It was quite a powerful moment about the finality of death and how we’re forgotten after that fateful day.
I won’t lie and say it was the most amazing Hamlet I’ve ever seen, it was far from, and there were some very strong decisions made that I disagreed with and some I even disliked, but many of our party tried to argue it was because they had a female Hamlet - that much I disagree with - female Hamlets, like cross-gendered parts of any sort, can and should work, you just have to work at it.
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