To Be Or Not to Be in a Patriarchal Kingdom: In Paris Theater, Shakespeare's Hamlet Is a Woman Played by an Actress

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark — especially when the kingdom turns out to be a patriarchy. Well, you knew it, it had to arrive: In France's Théâtre de l'Odéon, we get a feminist director from Brazil, one who has a revolutionary idea: "But of course! Hamlet is a woman!"

And so, Christiane Jatahy calls on Clotilde Hesme to play the prince. Le Figaro's Anthony Palou describes the rest of the semi-Freudian play set in modern times.

The prince of Denmark (an androgynous figure in a black jumpsuit) excepted, all the other characters are played by actors and actresses (Loïc Corbery, Isabel Abreu, Servane Ducorps, Matthieu Sampeur, Tonan Quito, David Houri, Tom Adjibi), as written by Will. Their dialogues and are interspersed by songs and music of Prince, Sinéad O’Connor, Nina Simone, Gilbert Bécaud, etc, not to mention Star Wars allusions (I am your father!)…

The characters are seen eating pizza, watching television (the nightly news show reports on Fortinbras, prince of Norway), dancing while beating eggs (Hamlet/omelet), or wailing over fratricide (Claudius) while sitting on… the crapper.

Sans Clotilde Hesme, cet (te) Hamlet retomberait comme un soufflé

All in all, the Figaro's Anthony Palou is not impressed by the play, which goes on for too long in too many places, but he does admit that Clotilde Hesme is magistrale, not to mention hypnotic.