Blind Hamlet is a collaboration between the award-winning Actors Touring Company and Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour exploring the tragedy of going blind.
The writer cannot write – his eyesight is failing – and he has told his story to his father's old Dictaphone. The stage manager, on stage, places the Dictaphone underneath a microphone and Soleimanpour's disembodied voice booms out.
The voice is charismatic and the writing beautifully structured, enrapturing the audience in a story of doctors' waiting rooms and bleak Moscovian landscapes. As the playwright, the voice carries an authority – commanding the stage manager and the audience, affecting the physical world. Themes of patriarchal, apparitional influence are neatly referenced by the Dictaphone.
Members of the audience are invited on stage by the voice to play games. Later abandoned by the voice and left to make their own decisions, the audience and stage manager continue to mirror the famous plot.
The ending was quite abrupt and didn't match the emotional and dramaturgical strength of the rest of the production. There was time and space at the end to play further with the onstage and offstage audience – a better resolution could be found to a powerful and surprising piece of theatre.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article