A Stage Big Enough for Us All
By Nick Nicholas with Wes Hessel
“Teatro La Plaza’s Hamlet”, at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, is a profound piece of performance, art, theater, protest, seminar, confession, social testament manifesto, and activism of persons born with that one extra copy of chromosome 21 we call Down Syndrome. Written and directed by Chela De Ferrari, it has a cast of eight performers from Lima, Peru, who explore, filter, analyze, and question their lives and ours in a most unique way and approach through the lens and circumstances of the Danish Prince.
This group of performers are extremely well rehearsed, competent, and confident actors whose Down Syndrome physical and intellectual limitations, as defined by science, are conquered to become a commodity, and not an obstacle, to this brilliantly presented, acted, and played out stage adaptation of “Hamlet”. It is these unique angles and aspects an artist strives to invent and create in art. This production surpasses what we know as unique.
Quick, smooth moving, well stitched scenes of storytelling in an interdisciplinary multimedia performance, this Hamlet examines, informs, states, and challenges perceptions and prejudices we generally have of persons of this disability. Performed in Spanish with English subtitles, the play moves along acting scenes from Hamlet, interjecting original text about who the actor characters are, what they think, how they feel, and take a targeted guess at exposing what we think of persons with Down. The actors defy speech limitations, the sound of their voice projected, phrases enunciated with clarity, and plenty of the poetry Shakespeare demands of all his actors in all of his plays.
They pose ordinary and existential questions we all have and bridge their/our differences not through empathy, but by making the argument that we are no different. They prove and win this premise scene by scene with the richness of this complex production, and their performance surpassing our ability and potential to succeed in a fraction of it, should we take on their tasks on stage. They didn’t miss a beat.
Pre-recorded film and image segments, as well as original song and music, accentuate their differences, give permission and offer us a chance to come onboard – while not identical, we are the same. They tell us what matters to them, their dreams and wishes to live the same life we do because they are able to recognize, plan, and carry out these aspirations.
The scene of staging Hamlet’s Mousetrap play within a play is enchanting, funny, and delightful. They entertain as an ensemble all the way to a joyful finale. To be or not to be is a recurring question – to love or not to love, to live or not to live, to dream or not to dream… In the manner of ancient Greek theater, where plays were moral and ethical referendums for people to make educated choices and come onboard, this company does just that 2500 years later, showing us that theater is all inclusive just as our world ought to be what is – a stage big enough for us all.
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