Hamlet (solo)

Hamlet (solo) is an exciting one-man version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet performed by Raoul Bhaneja who was recently described by the Globe & Mail as “an impeccable stage and screen performer.” Bhaneja and director Robert Ross Parker began developing the project in 2000 while members of the Soulpepper Theatre Company. The show combines the ancient art of storytelling and the modern invention of the “one-man show”. It draws on influences such as Clare Coulter’s intimate performance of Wallace Shawn’s The Fever and Bhaneja’s experience at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London while a member of the International Artistic Fellowship. In addition to watching over twenty different productions of the play from all over the world, Bhaneja played Laertes opposite Tom Barnett’s Hamlet at Halifax’s Neptune Theatre.

This thrilling evening focuses on the three most essential elements of theatre: the actor, the text and the audience. Bhaneja calls Hamlet (solo) “the anti-Elsinore” (after Robert Lepage’s technical and heavily-designed one-man exploration of Hamlet) as this production is a simply designed presentation that concentrates on the script with Bhaneja playing seventeen parts in a two-hour version based solely on Shakespeare’s text.

Hamlet (solo) is being presented as part of The 4th annual New Classical Theatre Festival.