PANTOMIME HAMLET

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 75, 31 March 1925, Page 6

PANTOMIME HAMLET

SHAKESPEARE IN MALAYA

THE ,GHOST AND A TELEPHONE.

Shakespeare might seem somewhat remote from the cosmopolitan Asiatic community of Singapore, but, after a visit to the Star Opera House to see "Hamlet" performed by a Malay opera company to a mixed Malay and Chinese audience, one realises that the poet is indeed not of an age but for all time, and one might add, for all countries. "Hamlet" lias become a legend, one of the great stories of the world, appropriated and rendered in many guises, from the artificial simplicity of the new Eeinhardt Theatre in Berlin to the cheerful pantomime of Malaya, where the actors' only link with the Western stage was the sight of an occasional Dutch rendering of Shakespeare in Java. Notice having been given in advance that three white Tuans wished to attend a performance, "Hamlet" was chosen, after some discussion, as the most popular play in the repertory. The three arrived, states a correspondent-.of "The limes," to find a thoroughly Western and conventional theatre with elaborate drop scene, and seats as at home, except that the place of honour consisted of small . boxes, like old-fashioned square family pews, immediately facing the stage. The curtain rose on a conventional room, from which a youn" lady in \\ estern evening dress, attended by a small and solemn brown page, clad in becoming yellow cloak and cap like a Venetian picture, descended from the stage with a tray of highly-scented jasmine and tinsel garlands, which she hunnround the necks of the embarrassed three amid the' applause of the audience, ihere they had to hang till • the per- ; formance ended, giving a finishing touch to the queer sensation of sight, sound and atmosphere. The players returned to the stage, and the first jolt was given to preconceived ideas by the discovery that the dark lady with inky hair was none other than the fair Ophelia, while the little page represented Horatio. The scenery and male costumes were interebamri-ible it would seem, with' those of "The Merchant of Venice" or "As You Like It," giving a cheerful and sufficiently Shakespearian general effect of mixed colour But the ladies had aimed higher, and the evening dresses and .Western coiffures gave a curious .vit- of a modern variety entertainment, while the Malay music and the curiously harsh voices (harsh at least to Western ears) suggested a pitch of up-to-dateness to which even our modern music has, happily,. not yet attained. ■ .

_ Ihe narrative of the past events leading up to the moment at which the play opens were performed in a sort of dumbshow,- explained by chorus and recitative, and left no doubt in the minds of the audience as to exactly what had happened to the late King. Then entered .Hamlet, unmistakable in his black suit, merely enlivened by some fantastic silver trimming which helped to harmonise him with his amazing surroundings. A fine actor, with the traditional conception of Hamlet's ironic humour his contempt for his surroundings, and Ins bitter struggle with his own conscience, he dominated the stage whenever he was on it, and one felt, as one has often felt when seeing other actors m the,same great role, that the part of Hamlet is so created that it plays itself and the part creates the player, not the player the part. One felt the situation, and the strife between the proud sensitive nature and the cruel fate constraining it, through the grotesque surroundings and in spite of the almost unknown tongue, and, after a scene or two the curious Eastern face,, with reminiscences of Eastern sculpture and even-a touch of the strange shadow faces of the shadow players of Java, seemed to be the Hamlet one has always known Hamlet himself connected this performance with the Shakespeare of all time, but the rest of the play was full of exciting surprises. The ghost turned out to be a comic character." introducing a. scene of excellent burlesque- in which the sleeping soldiers awake, and in the extremity of terror ring up the guardroom and the corporal who answers the telephone,;,brave and truculent from afar, but the most abject of all at close quarters with the spectre is an actor with a real comic gift, reminding one of certain c. r. e, neh Performers. There was all too little of t this comedian, but at one moHamelt leaves the country, he reappeared in an admirable interlude of a white tuan (master) engaging a dhobie (wash--1j!"ia? " M b°^ Jservant) Produces the t£?n ?l and r ex Plalns hi* qualifications, then the audience rocks with delight, as the master explains, in bad Malay, all that he expects in the way of service. At another moment, a small child entertains the house with a song and dancevery demure and very decorous, but making her exit with a wave of her I anas and a look in her eye which bodes ill for her future career. ' 1 10 th i Ce", e ch r anSes to what seems to be the banks of. the Seine, and, after a few more songs, the action of the piece s resumed, and. the wicked uncle, more hvn? hi i ia- ny jreal fi S"re, is at last brought to h,s destined doom. Most of hntfi ■ a\ SC! ne- S °f the Pay »wgiven, but ,t H kept, in spite of the interludes fin^lv Ye"lent len§th' and wl«» o>w nnally , comes out into the crowded streets and the car makes its way slow l.y among the rickshaws and foot passengers, with the dim light, shint/on ™ n ?, al < .Mala.V faces and the shying smooth hau- and bright ornaments of tho o fj TT? 1 !t is wilh the feeii"s our Zr i 'T Ul eve?iriS spent, which r, O one would have enjoyed more thoroughly than the divine William himself