At first thought, Shakespeare and Argentina are about as diametrically far apart as one could imagine two things could be: Shakespeare stands for literary tradition, he is the literary establishment; and when I think about Argentina and its language the word that springs to mind is irreverence - the cockiness, vibrancy and charm of the new Latin world.
It is not just the oceanic gap between our cultures - one full of fervour, demonstrative emotion, the other repressed and understated - it is the juxtaposition of the old world and new, tradition against modernity, north versus south, not to speak of our political conflicts, which might be hard to ignore in one of Shakespeare’s political plays.
And yet there is something remarkably similar about the two cultures; just like Britain, Argentina exudes creativity, from the street poetry of the piropos to the high literature that produced titans such as Borges and Cortázar. Shakespeare would no doubt have appreciated Argentines’ irreverence, ironic humour and sense of the absurd.
In fact, were he alive today, The Bard would have been creatively seduced by this psychologically fascinating, complex country and culture, full of flare, madness, neurosis and contradictions. Argentina would surely have inspired several great plays along the lines of Othello or Romeo and Juliet, in the way that Italy did.
But the laws of history being what they are, It is the modern world that has the chance to reinterpret one of our classics. The Theatre company El Kafka, from Buenos Aires, was given Henry IV, part 2, to bring to The Globe. In directing and performing one of Shakespeare’s historical and political plays, an Argentine cast has the chance to hold up a mirror to us.
At least the equal of Henry IV part 1 - Shakespeare’s account of the rise of Prince Hal, Henry IV's son, from idle barfly to monarch-in-waiting - Henry IV Part 2 includes some of the greatest moments in Shakespeare: the deathbed scene of the old King; the reunion of Falstaff with his old boon companion, Justice Shallow; and Hal’s devastating rejection of Falstaff himself.
Rubén Szuchmacher, one of Argentina’s most influential and controversial theatre-makers, directs the Argentine production of this elegiac and funny masterpiece. We caught up with this celebrated director and defender of the theatre’s freedom from the state, to find out how he's beefing up a British classic.
LL: Argentine Spanish is such a unique language. I’m curious as to what translation you would use…
RS: We translated the work ourselves, myself and Lautaro Vilo (who also plays Prince Hal), taking reference from different anoted versions, principally the one done by Giorgio Melchiori for Cambridge University Press. I never use translations ‘already done’ because translations of plays are usually done for the reader and not for the listener and on-looker. With Shakespeare you have to combine the poetic with the language of everyday. We opted, for example, not to go for the rhymes. English lends itself to rhyming because its more monosyllabic, but it would have sounded false to try to recreate exactly this genre when the language doesn’t lend itself naturally.
LL: So will we have any 'Che, que pelotudo' in the mix?
RS: Ha, ha. No, no ‘Che’ and no ‘pelotudo’. We are using language that is obviously Argentine, but without resorting to slang. This is Shakespeare; we don’t want it to loose the quality, the magnificence and poetry of the language by going too street. We obviously wanted to inject the spirit of the Argentine language but you don’t have to go too informal or grotesque to do that. For example, in one line Falstaff says, “Thou whoreson mad compound of majesty”
We say: “Pedazo de hijo de puta de majestad enloquecida.”
It’s totally Argentine, without taking it too far and sounding horrible.
LL: What about the play? How did you feel about Henry IV?
RS: It’s a difficult play to do for an Argentine director as it’s a part of English history and so full of historical references. What I tried to do was portray a decomposing world, which is really what the play is about. Everyone in the play has something to hide, everyone is surrounded by people with hidden agendas, nobody can be trusted or has anyone they can trust. Decomposition is the central theme.
It’s strange for us, because Henry IV is considered a beloved king by the English, surrounded by traitors and imbeciles but, as Argentines we don’t like him at all. He’s an imperialist. He sees politics in these terms – invading other countries is necessary to deflect attention from internal problems. Obviously this resonates with us; both Britain and Argentina went to war over the Malvinas, using it to restore popularity and, therefore, order. For me this is a horrific idea - a decomposing world that has to generate war impose order.
Falstaff on the other hand, we identify with, although he also wants to forget the past, which is not something I admire.
LL: Did The Globe tell you how far you could go with the interpretation or how true to the original you had to be?
RS: No. The Globe didn’t impose any rules other than it has to be ‘the work’. I wouldn’t want to try and make it into something its not. You have to let a work be itself. If you want to transmit messages…well you have the post for that (laughs). On the other hand I have not tried to imagine what an English public might expect or want from the play. I have produced the play thinking of an Argentine audience.
LL: So what do you think an English audience might take away from this production. What would you like them to take form it?
RS: I guess, the humour, which there is quite a lot of, and which we’ve made more Argentine. We have a particular sense of humour, which I guess is on the darker side, the humour in the play is quite naïve, we’ve made it blacker.
We’ve mixed things up a bit. The costume is neither period nor totally contemporary, leaving you thinking it could be taking anywhere in anytime. The Rumour for example is dressed in a Rolling Stones t-shirt.
LL: Rolling Stones T-shirt?
RS: Well the Rumour is the mouth of the play right? What is the most iconic British mouth you can think of?
LL: Oh yeah…right!
RS: I hope, more than anything that the audience captures the energy and vibrancy that we have in our culture and our theatre. Then again one doesn’t have the insight into what one is, that’s for others to judge. That’s why it will be interesting for me too.
LL: Are you nervous?
RS: Yes, very (laughs). There are 15 actors and we won’t be able to rehearse the thing in its full size and capacity before we arrive because the space we have to rehearse here is much smaller than the Globe. We’ve got 6 hours in The Globe to rehearse before the first performance so it’s a big risk. But then taking risks, that’s the typical Argentine way of doing things.
LL: So, we can expect a TRULY Argentine production, down to the logistsics.
RS: Exactly!
