This content was published on Aug 09, 2023 – 14:17
La Paz, Aug. 9 (EFE). Some parts of Hamlet, one of William Shakespeare’s classics, mixed with elements from the Andes and translated into Quechua, were presented by Bolivia’s Teatro de los Andes and the UK Embassy.
The work was shown at the International Book Fair in La Paz, where one of the guests of honor was the UK, which presented this classic tragedy, written at the beginning of the 17th century, as one of the main activities.
“I am very grateful for his work and very honored to be able to share a part of my culture through the Bolivian language that will really connect with people,” Geoff Glicken, the UK’s ambassador to Bolivia, told EFE.
The idea of presenting this work, one of the most influential in literature, in Quechua, one of the thirty-six languages recognized in Bolivia, is precisely to generate a “cultural impact” with an original and striking idea, commented Gilkin.
Presented by Los Andes Theatre, one of the finest in the country, the show featured three actors who mixed Andean elements such as using woodwinds to add sound to parts of the play.
Los Andes Theater Director Gonzalo Callejas told EFE.
The actor recreated fragments of when Hamlet speaks to his father’s ghost and also played with the “table-door” motif he carries on his back, and also included one of the most famous phrases “To be or not to be, to be or not to be, is the question,” Callejas said.
The show lasted about 15 minutes and while characters like Hamlet and Ofelia performed on stage in Quechua, translations of each character’s dialogues appeared on the screen so that those present could understand the work.
“Quechua is a wonderful figurative language, it’s hard to learn, but at the same time when you learn it, it’s great to pronounce the words,” Callejas said.
The theme of this 27th edition of the La Paz Book Fair is the magic and imagination of British literature and ecology. EFE
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