Elisa Ohtake
play for adults made by children
Play For Adults Done By Children
PLAY FOR ADULTS DONE BY CHILDREN is a play with five adventurous kids for an adult audience. The children act, dance, live, do some Hamlet, explore transhumanism, come up with games for adults against boringness, against anthropocentrism, against death in life. They invent cosmogames because what they want is cosmopolitics. They dive into Hamlet, in other words, into the apotheosis of human consciousness, into the entity of the western world in crisis, only to then engage in transhuman studies, in new possibilities for the human being, and an expanded notion of humanity. The director Elisa Ohtake took a Shakespearean look at these children in order to create this play. Each child thinks, acts, and dances Hamlet from his/her own life experiences and singularity. The text was written in conjunction with the kids and Elisa respected each of the five children’s personal grasp of Shakespeare’s writing. The play is not about Shakespeare, nor about children, much less about adults, but an intermediary zone in which children grapple with Hamlet and with transhumanism and present such understanding to an adult audience.
Of course, there are layers to Hamlet that children are not yet equipped to probe. Even adults have a hard time with Hamlet, which is not always comprehensible, but tends to flicker enigmatically. That’s why it was crucial to have some of the presentations feature Pereio, a great old actor who couldn’t be less associated with the world of childhood.
The rehearsals of PLAY FOR ADULTS DONE BY CHILDREN were a mix of free play and artistic laboratory. Each child identified with Hamlet in his/her own way, developing their own issues in dialogue with Hamlet, interacting with the group, evoking the transhuman, and generally having a blast. Elisa Ohtake tried to create a powerful environment in which to bring all that vitality to the forefront. The group is fun, loving and very united. The rehearsals lasted a year and a half, with no sponsorship whatsoever, except for collective funding, but the enthusiasm never vanished, quite the contrary. Elisa and the five children transformed difficulty into strength, standing together against these catastrophic, obtuse and fearful Brazil times.
“What dramatic project could encompass Hamlet? How does one represent a new type of human, especially one as authentic and detached as Hamlet?”
Harold Bloom
Credits
concept and direction: Elisa Ohtake
dramaturgy: Elisa Ohtake + cast
cast: Davi Hamer, Felipe Bisetto, Joana Fix Arantes, Michel Felberg, Vitória Reich
special appearance: Paulo Cesar Pereio
assistant director: Camila Urbano
stage design: Elisa Ohtake + cast
wardrobe: Elisa Ohtake + Cesar Rezende
props: Elisa Ohtake
sound design: Elisa Ohtake
lighting: Padu Palmerio & Vini Hideki
sound: Luisa Jaffé
stage management: Jonas Lumazini, Victor Abrahão, Luisa Jaffé
photos: João Caldas
video: Mariana de Melo, Joaquin Castro, Gui Leandro, Felipe Gonçalves
PR: Adriana Monteiro
produced by: Stella Marini, Elisa Ohtake
anthropological provocateurs/beyond-incredible artists: Moara Passoni, Stélio Marras, Cesar Resende
thrilling, singular collaborators: Zeca Moura, Miguel Chaia, Nani de Oliveira, Helena Katz, Cassandra Mello, Maria Cecília Almeida e Silva, Luaa Gabanini, Mariana de Melo, Joaquim Castro, Gui Leandro, Cella Azevedo, Felipe Gonçalves, Cristian Duarte, Casa do Teatro, Ligia Cortez, Luciana Barbosa, Leozinha Pelliciari, Suzi Ramos, Jonas Masetti, Vandilma Soares, Vanusia Soares, Verenna Campos, Lucas Godoi, Adriana Monteiro, João Caldas, Gustavo Vellutini, Vitória Cohn
infinite thanks to Thais Hamer, Arthur Hamer, Mariana Fix, Pedro Arantes, Rose Reich, Frederico Reich, Sandra Oliveira, Alessandro Bisetto, Priscila Felberg, Rodrigo Felberg
reviews
“The language of the work, the way in which Elisa arranges and approaches philosophical themes of high density – transhuman, anthropocene, anthropocentrism – that makes the montage a unique and successful experience in its amalgamation of science, philosophy and theater.”
Luiz Felipe Reis – FIT Rio Preto
“Play for Adults Made by Children is one of the best plays I've seen in recent times. Intelligent, original, daring, philosophical and playful at the same time – but here's the essential: although made by children, it frees them from the infantilization to which they are subjected, and frees us from the infantilization to which theater subjects us today. Few pieces show the process by which they were worked to such an extent, revealing thought in a state of creation.”
Peter Pál Pelbart - philosopher and professor at PUC-SP
“Elisa Ohtake updates Shakespeare to think about the current moment of (permanent) crisis in the western world and the muffled life of difficult sociability. The play is a surprising, passionate and moving experience performed by a group of children as if it were their first magnificent hearing of the work of William Shakespeare. The 21st century is felt as the time that generated the text. In the best sense provided by the Tragic Philosophy, the joy and spontaneity of the text and of the small, but great, actors produce in us the desire of becoming a child, in which the flow of life is guided by the lightness and power of the desire to exist. The play is an event crossed by the affection and complicity of director and actors.”
Miguel Chaia, prof. Doctor of Shakespeare and Politics at PUC-SP post graduation.
“In Play for Adults Staged by Children, children get their message across, and they are in no mood for playacting. For the kids, the world today is selfish, anthropocentric and ruled wrongheadedly by self-centered human beings. They want to grow up and become adults who can look at other creatures, even the invisible and the inanimate. They want general integration with the universe. They want universal solidarity. Their message is transmitted through various theatrical languages and techniques, and the result is a valuable experience for everyone involved: performers, technicians, the director and the audience.”
Iná Camargo Costa, theater thinker
“Ohtake's signature, with inventive scenic compositions and dramaturgy carpentry, is evident, but “Peça Para Jovens” is enhanced by the unique presence of each of the children. Performative in character, the staging explores its process. The approaches to Hamlet represented by the children, based on each one’s understanding of the work, demonstrate the seriousness of their views.”
Amilton de Azevedo – FOLHA DE S. PAULO
“What play is that? Part? Very little call it a play. As I've said before, it's an event. It does not fit into genre, into dramaturgy manuals, into established languages. The result is impactful, unbelievable, surprising, out of any house, out of any model ever seen. Breathtaking. To fill the chest with hope. Theater still has keys and doors to open, experiences to explore, a future to pursue. (...) It is a trans-play, an unforgettable experience both for those on stage and for those in the seats. Let new seasons come. The theater needs this gap opened here by Elisa Ohtake. A window to the future. Ah, what a breath of hope. Ah, how much mischief that only the theater is capable of promoting!”
Dib Carneiro Neto
“On stage, children pose not as children, in the childish sense, but as individuals who, having their own ages, are above all the affirmation of the moment. The show is also special to the very interest of the theater, as it reinvents, airs, breathes. Elisa Ohtake once again unravels the depths of language to list the essentials. A special, urgent, unique show that should serve as a stimulus to all family rooms where there is a child in this country in danger. The year ends by inviting us to play, die and be born others, instead of the usual political, social, cultural, human and boringssssss arguments. At last."
Ruy Filho
“With dramaturgy focused on a fractured representation of reality and fiction, the piece Play for Adults Staged by Children is one of the most unexpected and surprising performances currently on show.”
Celso Faria- blog Urbanidade
“The five actors represent Hamlet in a most exposed and revealing way.”
FOLHA DE S. PAULO – Nelson de Sá
