Utterly unique to Cambridge, the European Theatre Group (ETG) has been touring the continent annually with a Shakespeare play since 1957. I sat down with this year’s director Ilona Sell, assistant director Flo Winkley, and actors Jacob Benhayoun (Hamlet) and Sarah Mulgrew (Ophelia), the first group to embark on the European tour after the two-year Covid-19 hiatus. “I wanted us to do a good job so that we could set up ETG to continue”, comments Ilona, highlighting some memorable praise from an organiser in Konstanz who told her: “Next year we are going to invite the ETG back to the bigger theatre”. Clearly their performance made an impression.

“The audience is guided to question their sympathies for each of the characters on stage”

The vast but insular Cambridge theatre scene represents a completely different experience to touring schools and universities across Europe, and I’m keen to hear from the production about their travels. Flo tells me: “It was people of different ages, people of different countries, different languages.” Jacob adds: “There’s almost a hyperconsciousness within Cambridge. It’s [ETG] almost quite freeing, performing in a space where it doesn’t feel as if all audience members are out to critique you”. Ilona explains: “People are hosting us in their houses, and giving us food. They’re going out of their way to look after us because they want to see this show, which is crazy”.

Staging Hamlet is clearly the right choice in showcasing the ETG’s exciting return. “I do think Hamlet was a really good choice”, comments Ilona, which in her eyes represents a “non-controversial” Shakespeare play, but also one open to exciting new interpretation. In this Hamlet, the audience is led deep not only into the Dane’s own consciousness, but is guided to question their sympathies for each of the characters on stage. This Hamlet explores love, death and comedy in new and exciting ways, aided by the distinct sense of youthfulness that permeates from all aspects of this production. “We really thought about young love”, comments Flo. “That’s something we can all understand. We wanted to do a young love and the repercussions and the heartbreak of that justice”. When the ages of the characters are brought as close to the real ages of the actors as would make sense, a move deliberately taken by the director, Shakespeare’s play takes on a kind of new relevance as a student production.

“We really thought about young love”

Ilona shares more about her vision as director. “Fresh takes on the characters and the dynamics between them was quite a big part of it. We wanted to really find each character’s sympathy and invite the audience to care about them and present them as real people with these real relationships to each other”. The rest of the team agree that it was Ilona’s unique vision that contributed to their decision in applying for Hamlet this year.

Sarah tells me how this production has similarly transformed the all too often sidelined female characters, discussing her initial apprehension about taking on the role of Ophelia. “What she goes through in the play can get lost in the fact she ends up mad”, comments Sarah: “A lot of it is because of grief and heartbreak. As a female character in Shakespeare she has no agency. I wanted to bring that out”. Meanwhile, Jacob’s interpretation of Hamlet is informed in part by his own circumstances. “You end up playing to some extent an extension of yourself [...] thinking about my own experiences helps inform a different kind of characterisation”.

On a lighter note, the four share their favourite memories of the tour, talking fondly of Christmas markets, Belgian drinking songs, even having a celebrity moment after being recognised by locals in a pub and spending a well-deserved weekend in a Swiss chalet. “You leave your own little legacy”, Flo comments, and it’s clear that this student production of Hamlet is an important one, not just for those involved, but through the connections forged as a result.

The group tells me of one particularly memorable moment, where an Antwerp teacher tells the team that the reason he had been so keen to put the ETG on for his students was because he had seen the Cambridge group on tour himself back when he was a student. “I feel like that was a full circle moment where you feel like what you’re doing is a part of history”, Flo reflects. This theatre group will no doubt continue to share its passion for Shakespeare and the stage across Europe in its beautifully accessible and distinctive way. This production of Hamlet has taken one of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays and breathed into it new life.

Hamlet is coming to the ADC on the 17th to 21st of January, 7:45pm