Συνέντευξη ηθοποιού, Χρήστου Λούλη

ΠΕΡΙΓΡΑΦΗ

“Let be”

Hamlet is the right person at the wrong time. He is a noble soul, tormented by the feelings of justice and love, living in a decaying society without values. He is a bright mind, flirting with the limits of madness in order to conquer wisdom. He is the hero that left behind great lines that made him eternal. Christos Loulis, our production’s Hamlet, explains how it feels to play the most knowledgeable madman!

By Erifyli Mikropoulou, Elias Georgiopoulos and Ethymis Antoniades

How would you characterize Hamlet? Is he decisive or indecisive, scared or brave? Is he sceptical, unable to do his duty, or simply a tragic hero caught in a situation where others decide for him? What kind of a person is he after all?

He is indecisive, because he knows what needs to be done, but keeps putting it off. Is he scared or brave? I do not see these two notions as mutually exclusive. His bravery does not presuppose lack of fear. A brave person is scared, but overcomes his fears. Does Hamlet make his own decisions or not? The truth lies somewhere in between.

And in the end, he acts upon his decision, when there is nothing more left to do. He waits until there is no escape, before deciding to act.

In the end is Hamlet mad?

It depends on how we define madness. ‘Madness’ puts you on the margins of society, marking you. In such cases as that of Hamlet, the combination of a quick and sharp mind makes it easy to see the hypocrisy and weaknesses of others. In this sense, one could suggest that it is Hamlet who is ‘normal’ and the rest who are mad.

It is difficult to manage your life, if you cannot forget certain things. First and foremost, we will all die. And this is something we have to forget in order to live. This is both paradoxical and mad in itself.

Hamlet is, therefore, mad in the sense that he cannot keep up with those around him. If you cannot meet society’s demands to think and act in a certain way, then yes you are ‘mad’. And yet Hamlet understands things that others do not. He is outside society and constantly accuses others and himself – yes, you could say he is mad. But he is a very nice ‘mad man’, the kind that we all need to listen to, if we are to change our lives. Then again perhaps he is the only sensible person in a mad life.

Was his madness faked?

Often when one fakes something, he ends up believing in his own lie. The nice thing about Hamlet is that he wants to change the world. He knows, however, that this is only possible, if he manages to change himself. He kills his uncle, after he has immersed himself in death. It is as if you want to push your enemy under a cliff, but the only way to bring him down is by falling with him. This is a very brave act, which I do not recommend of course [laughter]… It transgresses fear. In the end, Hamlet may be mad, but because he is so clever he also becomes wise.

Can there be ‘catharsis’, if both the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ characters die in the end?

Shakespeare’s greatness lies in the fact that the work has no happy ending. Just like in life, no one is solely good or bad. There is no absolute justice. Shakespeare is not interested in life after death. What interests him is the lack of justice. Justice exists only momentarily.

‘To be or not to be?’

In this famous monologue Hamlet ponders on the meaning of life: ‘Why should I live and be deceived by those in power, be scorned by arrogant people? Or why should those in power pass such laws that humiliate me as a human being and crush my personality? Why? Why don’t I commit suicide, or why don’t I take a sword and kill them all?’ The answer is simple: ‘Because I am afraid of death.’ That is perhaps the reason why we do not act, precisely because we are afraid of the unknown. At first, then, Hamlet articulates a question: ‘to be or not to be’. He reads ‘to be’ in the context of ‘perseverance’: to be beaten up, to face all problems with patience and stoicism.

‘Not to be’ is meant as a struggle against what belittles you, whether this is a person who does you an injustice, or whether the years passing by, leaving you with a feeling of disintegration. It calls for action: ‘do something’.

In the end, then, Hamlet sees that neither persevering nor constantly revolting for the sake of revolt holds the answer he is looking for.  Thus he says: ‘let be’. In other words, I will not alone set things into motion; I will react when I must. However, knowing when to make a move presupposes many mistakes during the process of figuring out what must be done. In the end, if lucky, one will know when he should resist or act.

What does it mean for you to play such important roles?

Ι have chosen to work in theatre. This means that I do not take myself seriously, because I create something that exists only momentarily, and it is then gone. This makes me think that I am not a person of importance, since I say the words and play the lives of others. However, when we talk about such roles and texts, it is as if for a moment I grasp so many things at once, which I (or all people together) would only be able to grasp in a lifetime. Of course right after this thought disperses, I have to start all over again.

Moreover, these roles are ways to socialize and understand myself better. We all consist of many parts: some we like and some we don’t; some we are afraid of, while others are rather playful. In our everyday encounters with people, we tend to hide most of them out of fear. But if you hide them, you are never whole; you can never know who you are. In theatre, one is forced to bring out things he did not know existed; or even if he does know, he often supresses them. Through this process one gets to know oneself better, moving towards self-completion.

Hamlet is a special case of a young man, for whom love is not a priority. Even his friendship with Horatio seems somehow more important than his relationship with Ophelia. Is this so? And if this is the case, why does Shakespeare make such a choice?

I do not know why Shakespeare does this. Perhaps he wishes to underline the ghost’s impact on Hamlet, which makes him unable to fall in love.  To have friends and to fall in love is part of a normal life. Hamlet, however, is unable to lead such life. Perhaps Shakespeare wanted to say that friendship and love are not enough to support Hamlet in what he is going through. Love cannot overshadow his great sadness about the way the world is.

Do you think that the father’s ghost exists or is it only in his head?

I do not know. But even when we do make up something in our head, if we believe it is real then it is, since it affects our lives. And it is important to bear in mind how relative truth can be. What is truth? If I imagine something, it is true. It exists somewhere for sure. Even that which has not yet been thought of exists in a way. Everything exists. There is no escape from the mind’s labyrinth. There is no Ariadne’s thread. If you start having such thoughts, you get lost in them. You ought to stop at some point and just go out for a walk. So much thinking is impossible to bear. That is what happens to Hamlet.

In other words, does Hamlet go mad from thinking too much?

We could say that. But just before he dies he says: ‘The rest is silence.’ In the entire work he talks and talks without taking action. In the end, after he has said all these wonderful things, the only thing left to say is ‘silence’. Perhaps he goes mad from thinking too much. But just before he dies he grasps the entire truth: that is, that he understood nothing. In the line of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, Hamlet realizes that we can never know everything; the only thing we can know is that we know nothing.

I also do not know. The only thing I know is that Shakespeare was a great craftsman and understood that humour is inherent in such grand moments in life. Man, with his limited powers, tries to come to terms with the overwhelming notion of existence. This process presupposes laughter. The more we try to understand life, the more we laugh.

Possible Motto

‘In the end, then, Hamlet sees that neither persevering nor constantly revolting for the sake of revolt holds the answer.  Thus he says: ‘let be’. In other words, I will not alone set things into motion; I will react when I must. However, knowing when to make a move presupposes many mistakes during the process of figuring out what must be done. If lucky, one will know when he should resist or act.’
‘Shakespeare was a great craftsman and understood that humour is inherent in such grand moments in life. The bigger the tragedy, the funnier it can get. Man, with his limited powers, tries to come to terms with the overwhelming notion of existence. Laughter is part of such a process.’