Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre’s Hamlet mesmerises Dhaka

When Bangladesh was writing a new chapter in its sporting history in Chittagong on Wednesday evening, capital Dhaka witnessed another glorious event being staged on another pitch.

None other than the 400-year old Globe Theatre of William Shakespeare staged one of the most celebrated creations of the world’s most famous English playwright - Hamlet.

Thousands had thronged the National Theatre of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy since Wednesday afternoon ignoring incessant rainfall and acute traffic congestion to be a part of history in the making.

Most of the enthusiasts, however, failed to make it into the 738-seat auditorium.

Parliament Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, State Minister for Foreign Affairs  Md. Shahriar Alam and National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman, among other dignitaries, were in the audience along with ordinary theatre enthusiasts.

For the first time in the country, the tickets of the lone show of The Tragedy of Hamlet, King of Denmark -- often simply dubbed ‘Hamlet’ -- by the Globe Theatre were sold online.

Theatre enthusiasts across the country hooked onto the internet to book their tickets, completing the sale within a mere 30 minutes.

At the opening of the performance, the audience enjoyed live music with instruments and vocal performance -- an exception in Western theatre but very common in the local form.

The actors amazed the gathering with their significant details of action and dialogue delivery.

One of the most read titles of English literature in this part of the world, the audience hardly missed any clue to the plot while the acts were continuously changing on stage for as long as two and a half hours.

Prince Hamlet attended his father’s funeral. The prince was shocked to find his uncle Claudius murdered his father King Hamlet, seized the throne and married his mother Gertrude.

His unsuccessful love with Ophelia, her descent into madness and subsequent death, staging of his father’s killing, confusion over avenging his father’s death and the successive demise of Gertrude, Claudius and, finally, that of Prince Hamlet had no trouble in connecting with the audience.

After the show, Speaker Chaudhury handed over crests to the performers and the drama crew.

Dhaka Theatre’s chief Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu said, “It’s a huge achievement for Bangladeshi theatre. The performance has also a great importance for the theatre activists. We need to learn how they were staging a work of Shakespeare after so many years.”

Globe Theatre’s Dhaka performance was a part of its global tour to mark the 450th birth anniversary of Shakespeare.

The group will stage Hamlet, one of the greatest tragedies of all time, in as many as 205 countries across the globe. It has successfully completed 120 performances by now.