On June 16, Guillaume Côté said goodbye to Romeo. He performed Prokofiev’s famous ballet for the last time, Romeo and Julietin Toronto. But he did not say goodbye to Shakespeare for all that. He will be Hamlet, in a co-production by Ex Machina and his company Côté Danse, directed by Robert Lepage, at the end of July.
“I always dreamed of developing my own Hamlet in choreography, said the dancer in an interview with The Press. The character has been underdeveloped in the world of dance, because it’s a role based on text, words, psychology… Things that are not easy to illustrate with movement. »
Côté sees in Hamlet a manipulative, egocentric and paranoid character… In short, an antihero, a register that he is not used to interpreting. “In ballet, I am mostly asked to play heroes, charming princes. »
And how can one render the twists and turns of Hamlet’s thought without words? Guillaume Côté believes in developing characters in a different way. By focusing on impressions, feelings, atmospheres.
PHOTO MATT BARNES, SUPPLIED BY THE PRODUCTION
Dancer and choreographer Guillaume Côté
Dance is a more abstract world. But we are doing Shakesperare’s play, by proposing something else, another punctuation of the work. We play a Hamlet between the lines.
Guillaume Cote
“The absence of words forces us to clarify things in order to embody them better,” adds Robert Lepage. There is an added value because it becomes very physical. Since there are no monologues or puns, the story is told through the action and locations that are important to the theater. The scene of confrontation between Hamlet and his mother in the bedroom, the bed takes on great importance. The carnal, sensual, oedipal side in the mother-son relationship takes on its full meaning. »
PHOTO TONY HAUSER, SUPPLIED BY THE PRODUCTION
The theater man Robert Lepage
If the director always returns to Shakespeare, it is because his work is immense and always to be explored. Prior to Côté’s offer, he had adapted Hamlet for his solo Elsinore and in Russia for Hamlet Collage. ” And Courville is also somewhat inspired by Hamlet he says. One day he will perhaps stage “a real Hamlet’, he says, because at 65, he now wants to revisit the classics. His own and those of others.
Hamlet in Quebec
Hamlet is an indecisive, cerebral, pensive young man, plagued by doubt. This inability to act has always interested Lepage. “In the scene where actors come to play in the king’s palace, Hamlet is surprised to see them crying in the theater for chimeras. While he has every reason to scream, to scream, but nothing comes out. Sometimes doubt paralyzes us. We are very indecisive in Quebec. Everyone wants to change business, but inertia always wins. »
This is the second collaboration between the theater man and the dancer after Frame by Framearound the filmmaker Norman McLaren.
What is good about collaborating with Guillaume is that he comes from ballet where there is room for interpretation and dialogue with the classics.
Robert LePage
The cast displays performers of different ages and styles. It ranges from break dance to classical, through contemporary and hip-hop. “I really like the democratization of dance, says Côté. And Robert has the same vision as me. I didn’t think I liked opera until the day I saw his opera productions. Robert approaches ballet in the same way. »
“You know, in work, Robert has no ego,” says Côté. Everyone is equal in the rehearsal room. If a collaborator or a young dancer has a better idea than his, he includes it in the show. I approach creative work the same way. Instinctive and organic. »
On stage, carried by the cast and the music of John Gzowski, Guillaume Côté will give a marathon performance lasting 1 hour 50 minutes. This role is a bit of a gift he gave himself at the age of 41, at the peak of his dancing career. This will not prevent the director of the FASS from taking part in talks with the public, after each performance, in the company of Lepage and the artists.
Hamlet
Created by Guillaume Côté and Robert Lepage
Saint-Sauveur Arts Festival July 26, 27 and 28, 8 p.m.