Sagunto's Roman Theatre hosts a Hamlet performed by actors with Down syndrome
Peruvian company Teatro La Plaza performs 'Hamlet, una versión recontralibre' this Tuesday, 11 August, at the Roman Theatre, as part of the Sagunt a Escena festival, with seven performers with Down syndrome and one actress with an intellectual disability.
For the InsProject cast, the Sagunto-based association that works with people with disabilities, this Tuesday, 11 August, marks the close of a training process: fourteen of its members will attend a performance of 'Hamlet, una versión recontralibre' ('Hamlet, a Very Free Version') at the Roman Theatre, after taking part in an inclusive dance workshop held over the first ten days of August. The performance is part of the Sagunt a Escena festival, run by the Valencian regional Department of Education, Culture and Universities through the Institut Valencià de Cultura (IVC, the regional culture institute), with support from the Valencia Provincial Council -through its theatre department- and Sagunto City Council.
On stage, the Peruvian company Teatro La Plaza -founded and directed by Chela de Ferrari, recognised in 2017 as a Meritorious Cultural Personality for her contribution to culture in her home country- takes Shakespeare's "to be or not to be" as a starting point to explore the place people with Down syndrome hold in today's society. The cast is made up of seven performers with Down syndrome together with an actress with an intellectual disability, who draw on their own life stories in a production that questions the standards of efficiency, productivity and beauty now held up as unreachable ideals.
Since premiering in 2019, the play has spent six years touring internationally and has picked up awards, including the audience prize at the Ribadavia International Theatre Festival in 2022. Landing now on the ancient stage of the Roman Theatre adds something extra to the show: rarely does the venue host a production that tackles disability from the inside, with performers who are both subject and voice of their own story.
The company's visit to Sagunto goes beyond the performance itself. The IVC wanted to link the production with the local community through a cultural outreach activity designed to make the festival's programme more accessible. Between 1 and 10 August, choreographers and dancers Ana Lola Cosín Torada and Lucas García ran the workshop "Un lugar para danzar" ("A Place to Dance") over three sessions at the Municipal Culture House in Puerto de Sagunto (Sagunto's coastal district), where InsProject participants explored movement using adapted tools and techniques.
That training journey comes full circle this Tuesday, when the group heads to the Roman Theatre to watch the play that has shaped their own physical work over recent weeks, closing the loop between stage production and community. For the wider Sagunto public, the show is also a rare chance to see, without leaving the city, an award-winning international production that puts Sagunto on the map of a cultural conversation about inclusion that reaches far beyond the local stage. According to Sagunto City Council, with additional background from Wikipedia.