Fringe holdover hits the Arden stage

In these parts Raoul Bhaneja is not exactly a household name. But theatre patrons who saw his Hamlet {Solo} back at the Edmonton Fringe Festival in 2008 were awestruck by his tour de force performance.

What set this two-hour, one-man character exploration apart from other Shakespearean ventures was that Bhaneja was playing 17 parts.

“I was especially excited because it was voted as a holdover show. Only so many make it out and that was a great vote of support from the Fringe and the audience,” says Bhaneja, a Toronto-based actor best known for the role of Pete in the televised Canadian soap opera Train 48.

Reminiscing about the warmth of Fringe audiences was part and parcel of Bhaneja’s decision to return to the area. On Friday, Oct. 7, he will perform Hamlet {Solo} at the Arden Theatre before heading north to Hay River and Inuvik.

In contrast to traditional presentations with lush costumes and sets, and high production values, Bhaneja walks onto the stage dressed in black minus props, a set and recorded sound. The major focus is the Bard’s text set in a storytelling format.

“I call it an acoustic Hamlet.”

Director Robert Ross and Bhaneja began developing the project in 2002 while members of the Soulpepper Theatre Company.

“Hamlet lent itself to a solo format. It was one of the first plays that questioned the individual’s role in the world. There are so many things in Hamlet’s quest that are universal and that we still struggle with today.”

Part of their research was to screen almost every Hamlet available to see how different directors and actors in North America and Europe broadcast their vision.

“In this version, my job was not just to play Hamlet. I wanted to see how other artists interpreted the story and the other characters. The play has a very rich palette and they (characters) all have an important function.”

Born in Manchester, England to a South Asian father and an Irish mother, Bhaneja grew up in Ottawa and Bonn, Germany.

When he was 15 living in Ottawa, he helped found A Company of Fools, a troupe devoted to producing Shakespeare on the street.

“We played to the lunchtime crowd of civil servants on Sparks Street or the weekend families at the Rideau Canal.”

A graduate of the National Theatre Arts School, he later landed the role of the hot-headed Laertes in Neptune Theatre’s staging of the tragedy in 2000.

“It was my opportunity to spy on the play and learn about it. There were so many things in the play that were essential to my production.”

Finally, after a six-year artistic journey, Hamlet {Solo} opened in 2006 at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille before going on to Montreal, New York, Victoria and London. To date the play has been performed over 100 times in 20 different cities.

In producing this one-man show, Bhaneja hopes “to shake off the shackles of academia, the notion that Shakespeare is only for a certain segment of the population. Hopefully audiences will be touched, moved and entertained.”