Hamlet – featuring an extraordinary cast of young people with Down syndrome - video Dailymotion

SussexWorld

Chela De Ferrari, associate director of Hamlet at the Brighton Festival (May 9-11), was told by the specialists that her actors would not be able to cope; that they simply wouldn't be able to do it.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at South Sussex Newspapers.

00:06Really lovely this morning to speak to Chayla.

00:08Now, you are bringing to the Brighton Festival something really intriguing,

00:12something really striking, something you were told you would not be able to do,

00:17yet by the end of the year you will have taken it to 50 cities.

00:21It's Hamlet, it's May 9th to the 11th in Brighton for the Brighton Festival,

00:27but the point is it's a cast of people with Down syndrome.

00:30Why? What made you decide to do that?

00:35That's right.

00:37Well, it has to do with one of the actors that he was a gnasher in La Plaza for more than three years

00:49when we had an internal event,

00:52and everybody was supposed to present themselves to the new cast that was arriving in La Plaza.

01:02And Jaime Cruz, in this opportunity, instead of presenting himself as,

01:08I'm Jaime Cruz, I'm an usher,

01:10he will present himself as an actor.

01:13That really, I have talked with him so many times and he never told me something similar.

01:24He wanted to say this that day,

01:26and I invited him for a coffee.

01:30And in that long coffee,

01:33he told me that what he really wanted to do is to be in the stage.

01:39He loved to be an usher and self-progressed.

01:43From that, then, you've got this cast of eight playing Hamlet.

01:46Now, what is the significance of the fight?

01:49Why is it important that these are people who do have Down syndrome?

01:53What are you saying with this?

01:57Yes, we want the audience

02:03to find beauty where they don't expect it.

02:11Traditionally, the role of Hamlet falls in the shoulders of one iconic, celebrated,

02:20very classical trained actor.

02:26To have eight actors with Down syndrome,

02:31of course, it's a provocation.

02:35But one that confronts us with the central question,

02:41to be or not to be.

02:43What does it mean to be for people who don't find spaces

02:48where they are considered, where they're taken into account?

02:51And yes, so I wish that the audience will not only find beauty

03:06in ways of representing that's very different

03:11when a traditional actor does,

03:15but also connect emotionally

03:19with persons that usually are not part of their lives.

03:24Yes.

03:24And understand and question also themselves.

03:28Who am I as a neurotypical person

03:33and have this interesting connection?

03:37And lots of people told you,

03:38you can't do this, this won't work,

03:40but it has.

03:41Yes.

03:42Yes.

03:45The specialist in the condition told us

03:51you will probably never be able even to open the,

03:57have the opening.

03:59You will not be able to rehearse more than an hour and a half

04:02because they will not be able to concentrate.

04:04You will not be able to have them alone

04:06in the, in, as we do in the, in the show

04:10without guidance.

04:12And, and we have open almost in 40 cities

04:19around the world during this,

04:22after the pandemic, during this last three years.

04:25So.

04:26It's a phenomenal and very special achievement.

04:29Congratulations.

04:30Really lovely to speak to you.

04:32I hope you have a very, very happy time in Brighton.

Hamlet – featuring an extraordinary cast of young people with Down syndrome

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