Raoul Bhaneja is nothing if not audacious.
The Toronto-based actor, writer, director and musician, recounts the time a former high school saw his one-man production of Hamlet.
"One of my high school teachers came to to me afterwards, and as if he quoting Obama, he says, 'the audacity... to do that!'. It was meant it in a good way, though."
Hailing from Ottawa, Bhaneja's Hamlet (solo) show has been garnering critical praise and developing with every performance. Having already taken the show to Edinburgh, London, and New York, as well as Edmonton's Push Festival most recently, the project has been a labour of love for Bhaneja, as proven by his documentary on the years-long experience, airing Wednesday night on Bravo!.
"That's what the documentary is about - when I look back at my life working on the show, through the filter of a director putting together the story. There's not really a moral of the story, but if you're going to let ppl tell you that you're ... "
He pauses, lost in thought.
"Look," he says with fierce determination, "the play stands as a great example on so many levels, of why it shouldn't work. Lots of people might've said 'oh it won't work', but most of the really good people in the arts world, they nod, and say, 'go for it'." Everybody knows the only way you break through and get to the next level is when you're pushing the boundaries of yourself and concepts about what shows should be, and how they shodl be presented."
The idea for a one-man Hamlet originated in three experiences that Bhaneja still holds dear. One involved a high school English teacher introducing him to the play, ("He got me hooked on Shakespeare"), another was exposure to a theatre company in Ottawa who performed experimental classical theatre on the street, and the other was the much-praised version of Hamlet done by Quebecois theatre artist Robert LePage.
Oh yes, and then there was Claire Coulter, a Canadian actress, who Bhaneja witnessed performing playwright Wallace Shawn's The Fever during his days as a student at the prestigious National Theatre School.
"She did this monologue with no lights, no props, no costumes," he says, with reverence, "She sat in a rotten old loveseat at a rehearsal space in Montreal. I didn't know her, or her work. She pulled up this old chair and two metres from us, and went, 'can I start now?' We looked at each other and said 'um, yeah sure'. And she launched into this amazingly intimate whacky strange world. We were transported."
One can almost hear the smile across the line to Edmonton.
"It was such a big inspiration," he continues, "and it was then I realized, under the right circumstances, all you really need are the words, the actor, and an audience - that's it."
In the documentary, Bhaneja speaks with several famous Hamlets through the years, including Christopher Plummer, Tom Barnett, Ben Carlson, Colm Feore, Soulpepper's Albert Schultz, and everyone's favourite Mountie, Paul Gross.
Bhaneja says that although he was influenced by the many different interpretations of the famous melancholy Prince, "when you see mine, (there are) elements of it you love, but there are also characters there you love from certain (other) productions. The audience tells me what version of Hamlet they want to see -it changes ... sometimes people want it to be funny, other times, they're really listening, waiting to find out what happens next in story. Two years into performing and touring it, it's still a fulfilling experience."
He smiles again, imagining what the famous playwright might say about Hamlet (solo): "why doth one man play my play?"
He's realistic about Hamlet (solo)'s impact in the overall scheme of things, however.
"It's a play, it's Hamlet, it's not the cure for cancer or rocket science, but there is something about it that is personal and unique, " he explains.
"It's rare to see a production where an actor of any level has had eight years to (let) a play ferment and grow inside them -that's quite a special experience. I've been so spoiled by having this play as an organism inside me. I don't know every Shakespeare (play) back to front, I'm not a scholar, but through this one play, Hamlet, I feel like I have a personal, quite intimate relationship with Shakespeare, because of how long I've been on ride. It's a real gift."
Hamlet (solo): The Documentary airs on Bravo! Wednesday, January 30th, at 10pm.
For more information, go to www.bravo.ca
For information on the work of Raoul Bhaneja, go to http://www.raoulbhaneja.com/.
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