Bringing Shakespeare to Tibet
Print Edition
鈥淭o be or not to be, that is the question鈥 鈥 Tonzhub Cering repeated the classic soliloquies from British playwright William Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥淗amlet鈥 during rehearsals.
The 23-year-old recently staged the masterpiece with 21 other Tibetan drama graduates in Lhasa, capital of southwest China鈥檚 Tibet Autonomous Region.
Born in Lhozhag County in Shannan City, Tonzhub Cering loves singing and dancing since childhood just like other Tibetans. He also enjoys reading novels and biographies.
After graduating from high school in 2017, he was enrolled at Shanghai Theater Academy.
He left his hometown on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, traveling thousands of kilometers to the coastal megacity in pursuit of his dream of being a performer.
鈥淚 felt very nervous on stage, as my Mandarin was not good and I couldn鈥檛 read my lines very well,鈥 he recalled. He used to practice Mandarin by talking to his schoolmates and strangers on the streets, and he made good progress in six months.
Tashi Benba Norbu is one of Tonzhub Cering鈥檚 classmates at the Shanghai Theater Academy. The former performs the role of Prince Hamlet in Mandarin, while the latter performs in Tibetan.
Language was not the problem.
鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to play the role due to my lack of life experience. Although I had no trouble memorizing lines, it took me quite a while to fully understand the script,鈥 Tashi said.
The Shanghai Theater Academy initiated its first undergraduate course in Tibetan performance in 2017. A total of 22 students from Tibet completed their four-year study at this institute.
The young Tibetans believe that virtues such as justice and kindness presented through outstanding literary works can strike a chord regardless of countries or nationalities.
To introduce Shakespeare鈥檚 play to the audience on the plateau, they blended some Tibetan elements such as Tibetan singing and dancing into the play.
Apart from the actors, a local drama troupe also helped by translating the play.
鈥淭he language of Shakespearean plays is highly poetic, therefore, it is very difficult to maintain the style of the original text while making Tibetan audience understand it,鈥 said Nyima Tonzhub, who took part in the translation. He spent several days translating the classic soliloquies 鈥 including 鈥淭o be or not to be, that is the question.鈥
Thanks to all these efforts, the famous Western play has not only received wide acclamation from the industry but also won applause from the Tibetan audience.
鈥淭his was my first time to watch Hamlet with Tibetan characters in Lhasa. I felt so close to a world classic,鈥 said Basang, a Lhasa resident.
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