This play’s the thing: Raoul Bhaneja does Hamlet (solo)

Raoul Bhaneja brings his award-winning show Hamlet (solo) to Soulpepper Theatre for a limited run from May 23-25, 2024. He debuted the show at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille 18 years ago, and it has since toured internationally to wide acclaim, but this will be the first time in ten years that he performs it in Toronto. 

The Gemini-Award winning Bhaneja’s varied career spans stage, screen and concert halls. Born in England to an Indian father and Irish mother, he was raised in Canada, where he attended the prestigious National Theatre School of Canada, then went on to acclaim as a versatile actor, producer, and writer.

As a solo performer, Bhaneja is renowned for his remarkable performance in Hamlet (solo). Directed by Robert Ross Parker, the play is a one-man rendition of Shakespeare’s tragedy, in which Bhaneja embodies 17 characters. Bhaneja has performed it more than 150 times in 25 different cities, and the ambitious and innovative production has been lauded around the world both for its creativity and Bhaneja’s exceptional ability to capture the essence of each character. Its awards and honours include  the 2006 Montreal English Critics Circle Award for Best Visiting Production and a nomination for the 2012 Calgary Critics Award for Best Solo Show. 

Return of the Prince
The return of Hamlet (solo) after a decade-long gap is driven by both personal and professional reasons. “I took a long break from the show as I toured Life, Death and The Blues, and we had our production of Disgraced with Mirvish and Citadel Theatre,” he recounts. “Then I got focused again on TV and film work. And then after booking Grey’s Anatomy, the pandemic hit a week later!”

The revival of Hamlet (solo) in 2022, which won Best Actor at The United Solo Festival in New York, reaffirmed Bhaneja’s commitment to this special show. “When the chance came to do it back in Toronto and at Soulpepper, it just felt like the right fit,” he says. “A classic is a work that resonates deeply beyond anyone’s era or time. Few things are classics. That’s how it works!”

Going solo
The decision to interpret Hamlet as a solo performance stems from both personal and collaborative inspirations. Bhaneja explains, “Both director Robert Ross Parker and I shared the same high school English teacher, Jane Moore, at Canterbury Arts High in Ottawa. She got us hooked on that play. We were students about two years apart, so when we started our collaboration around 2001, we had a similar starting point.”

While initially considering a full production where he would play Hamlet, Bhaneja was encouraged by director Chris Abraham to blaze new ground: “In an early conceptual workshop, he encouraged me to think more about the solo format. When Robert came on board, it began this long journey of discovering and rediscovering this great play.”

And Bhaneja drew inspiration from diverse solo performances. For instance, “in school, I had seen Clare Coulter do a solo play by Wallace Shawn called The Fever in a rehearsal hall at The National Theatre School with no sets, lights, props… anything. And it made me realize theatre can be as simple as a storyteller and an audience”.

Robert Lepage’s Elsinore, a solo Hamlet that is both a technological and design extravaganza, helped to solidify Bhaneja’s vision. Bhaneja envisioned his own show as a bare-bones, text-focused “Anglo” version of Hamlet that would form a compelling counterpoint to Lepage’s. And around the same time, an acting teacher told him the story of a Richard Burton press conference for a pre-Broadway run of Hamlet at the then O’Keefe Centre in Toronto. Burton had read from the play “performing all the parts”, and the teacher called it “spellbinding”. 

“I got all these ideas in the mid 1990s while at NTS”, recalls Bhaneja. “By the time we had worked through it all and opened in 2006, the play had lived with us for a good while. It’s crazy to think of it now 18 years later still being a part of our creative lives!”

In his view, Hamlet naturally lends itself to this solo format because “the play is so much an exploration of ‘the self’ — and also, “as one of the great humanist dramas, it’s more of a solo work than, say, The Two Noble Kinsmen!” That said, he would pay good money to go see that show – and he did fly to New York in March to see his former TV co-worker Eddie (Suzy) Izzard do her own solo take on Hamlet – something which they had discussed a few years ago. The interpretation was “fascinating… in some ways very similar, and in other ways TOTALLY different.” 

Deepening, stretching . . . and coming home
Over the years, Bhaneja’s interpretation of the characters in Hamlet (solo) has evolved. “Hopefully, it deepens over time. As you become a more experienced human, the actor follows, I suppose. And it all has time to age: like scotch in the right kind of barrel, it soaks into you,” he explains. Reflecting on the many actors who have played Hamlet before him, Bhaneja shares a poignant moment with the late John Neville: “I asked him what he thought the play was about, and he said, ‘the disillusionment of youth.’ I didn’t understand that phrase then like I do now, as a parent of two teenagers and as an almost 50-year-old, looking at what the young have been left to inherit.” He smiles and nods. “John was right.” 

Firmly ensconced in middle age, Bhaneja boasts talents that extend well beyond the stage. “Besides being an actor, I have been a musician for most of my life,” he shares. “I have released eight records and played at festivals across Canada: playing blues music with my band Raoul and The Big Time, and more recently, in a more jazz-based duo called Blue Standard.” Known for their dynamic performances and authentic blues sound, Raoul and The Big Time have received multiple accolades, including a Maple Blues Award.

Ahead of the show’s opening at Soulpepper, Bhaneja is in a meditative and appreciative mood: “It is a great honour and semi-sacred act to share work in the theatre with people again. For a while, I didn’t know what theatre would be and how it would come back, so I treasure any chance I have to share in the experience as a performer.” And Bhaneja’s mind is also on his late friend director Daniel Brooks, who invited him back to perform in The Seagull at Soulpepper last season: “Without him, this would not be. So our performance is dedicated to his memory.”

Hamlet (solo) is a Hope and Hell Production, presented by Soulpepper Theatre from May 23 through May 25, 2024.  Visit soulpepper.ca to reserve tickets. The show will also return in the fall at The Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse, New York. 

Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2024