Love’s Labour’s Won
THE SHAKESPEARE PROJECT AND HAMLET
Shakespearean productions are scarce in Montreal. To our benefit, The Shakespeare Project has emerged as a passion-driven initiative, offering a new take on classical theatre in our fair city. A far cry from grant funded anglo theatre, this project is entirely fueled by the dedication of its creators and players. Founded and led by Matt Enos, a 2004 graduate of Dawson College’s Professional Theatre Program, The Shakespeare Project aims to bridge the gap between recent theatre graduates and the professional theatre world. Its debut production of Hamlet, mounted at Theatre Ste. Catherines, brings together fresh young talent and seasoned thespians in one of Shakespeare’s most iconic plays. With no traditional institutional backing, the project demonstrates a genuine love for the Bard, and a commitment to offering both actors and audiences a richly authentic theatrical experience.
As an actor, director, and writer, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Shakespeare, as I’m sure many creatives do. I have very strong, very polarizing opinions about his work, with a secret short list of the plays I’d never hesitate to work on, plays I’m passionate about. Passion, which I believe is integral when producing anything Shakespeare. Passion, which is notably at the centre of The Shakespeare Project, as demonstrated by their pilot production. After attending a Friday night performance of Hamlet at Théâtre Sainte-Catherine, I was grateful to speak to founder, and director, Matt Enos about his passion, and the project’s ultimate mission.
The passion of the cast and crew for Shakespeare was on full display with Hamlet. Could you elaborate on your personal relationship with Shakespeare’s work?
It exists in a spiritual dimension, like the music of Bach does. I think it's capable of many things that we don't understand, And I think there are a few things on earth that will make you feel more powerful than speaking Shakespeare speeches loudly and with conviction.
Hamlet was the company's first production, an enormous undertaking. What was your motivation to create The Shakespeare Project? What is the mission?
The project was started to build a bridge between Dawson's Professional Theatre Program and the first steps of an acting career, hopefully, and to give those of us from the theatre community who love Shakesepare an opportunity to do his plays. It's not just a project for theatre makers, but for audiences as well. Nothing levels you up quite like doing a difficult and demanding play, and Shakespeare offers a double edged sword to the actor; it's ultra demanding and nuanced -- there's all this language to forge a relationship with and refine -- but you're offered tremendous freedom of expression and situations where the stakes are sky high. The actor has to make a million choices, but if they put in the work and take risks, they're rewarded by this playwright in ways that nobody else can offer. It's also been great to see what happens when I can see that happening every day in rehearsal, and it's inspiring. I hope this is the first of many such productions.
You mention that this project isn’t just for theatre makers but for audiences as well. What do you hope audiences take away from this production of Hamlet? How do you think their experience might differ, seeing recent graduates and seasoned actors performing side by side?
First and foremost, I think in Montreal it's actually quite rare to see Shakespeare outside of training institutions. I'm hoping the audience will take away the real Shakespeare experience, which is one of experiencing extremely complex characters going through very high stakes situations and being changed forever by them, (the characters, I mean, although the audience would be nice, too) all while being provoked by the most powerful language ever written for the stage. I hope they’ll be entertained, I hope they’ll feel something that they don’t feel with contemporary theatre. There’s a great demand for the spoken word, I believe, And these words are some of the best words ever written, ever spoken. Shakespeare offers The Human Experience first and foremost, and I hope that's what the audience takes away, if they take anything away. In Act 5 Scene 1, Hamlet goes to a graveyard and interacts with the skull of the Court Jester who used to make him laugh so much, and asks some pretty serious questions about where we're all going to end up, inevitably. In the next scene, he gets the feeling that something bad is going to happen in the fencing match, but decides to go forward with it anyway, and makes a very short speech about accepting it. “The readiness is all.”
There's something unique and magical about seeing young people do really difficult things on stage. That's something that older people said to me when I was about 20, and I didn't understand it until now, but it's really great and inspiring. It just so happens that Hamlet has this world of youth balanced with the world of older characters, so to have that span of ages in our cast is very attractive, I would think, to the audience. Almost the world of parents and children, or the generation that's making the decisions versus the generation that's about to make the decisions, replace them, and make them obsolete.
Cast of Hamlet - Photo by Frederic Veilleux
You’ve seen firsthand how actors 'level up' through difficult plays like Hamlet. How do you balance challenging them with making sure they feel supported throughout the process?
I think a lot of actor training comes down to just encouraging people, and reminding them that they're really good at what they do, and that they do have a great deal of talent. Sometimes it's just about checking in with actors and seeing how they're feeling about where they are in the process of preparing the role, or asking them if there's anything that's in their way. And giving them the space to try things and have it work, or not work, and encouraging them to put their own personal connection out there on the stage, and not get trapped by what they think the play should be, or what other people think the play should be, or even what good acting should be.
What do you think Shakespeare offers modern actors that other playwrights don’t? Is there a particular aspect of his writing that you think resonates with today's actors?
Shakespeare offers grandeur, I think. Mark Rylance was talking about that in a lecture that I saw a while back; you can play much much bigger than you normally would in a contemporary play, in terms of getting your body involved, in terms of gesture, in terms of projection, enunciation, intensity… I mean, you can go and see a grade eight version of Midsummer Night's Dream and have it be an absolute home run, sometimes even versions of the tragedies are good in high school productions… that's curious because nobody has any actor training at that point really, but I think it's incredibly accessible and it ignites a sense of play in the actor instantly. The stories are very clear, the situations are very high stakes, the characters usually tell the audience what they're going through or what they're thinking, so there's not a ton of mystery in that regard for the actor. I actually think if you make the play about the language, it's a bit of a trap. Obviously you need to integrate it, and make it sing, and make it yours -- and a lot of time in rehearsal is spent doing exercises with the text and making sure that it's serving the story and the actor’s power, but these plays are still around because of what the characters go through and the wild situations they’re put in.
You've had a busy professional theatre career so far, what led you to working with recently graduated students?
Our younger actors have just finished 3 years of intense training, so in many ways they're sharper than actors who haven't had that kind of volume thrown at them for a while, and that's exciting. They have a fresh perspective and a passion for theatre that's infectious, and they all bring their own perspectives and imaginations to the project. I've worked with quite a few of them on contemporary plays in the last few years, so that's quite nice too, to have worked together before. It gives you a sense of how each actor likes to work and usually a better idea of how to direct them clearly. I'm on a mission to provide opportunities for young actors to play substantial roles, because that's where you find out what you're made of as an actor and theatre maker. It can be a huge confidence boost and show you that you can actually do this insane job if that's what you want to do.
In this process, were you able to witness a younger actor learning from a seasoned professional? What about the opposite?
Yeah, absolutely. There was a moment where I saw something from an actor that I hadn't seen yet because they were in a scene with someone who had been doing this for a long time and was able to bring emotional truth to a big moment in the play. I think it allowed them to trust the present moment way more. And yeah, I did have a conversation with some of the more seasoned actors who were impressed by the young cast, their handling of the text and their roles. I think we were as excited to work with them as they were to work with us.
You said you’re passionate about giving young actors a chance to play substantial roles. What do you believe they gain from stepping into a role like Hamlet or Ophelia early in their career, compared to taking on more limited roles?
If you're going to play Shakespeare and not be boring, you're going to go through 101 crazy emotional changes in two hours, and you're going to do that while having to speak in powerful imagery, complex speeches, and use some terms that are basically impossible for a modern audience to understand. You're going to have to make a thousand choices and be clear with all of it. If you can manage to do all of that, it will make you razor sharp and fill you with confidence. I mean, how many people in Canada have played Hamlet and brought the audience somewhere with them? It's a special thing. I think about huge roles like climbing a mountain. There are many high mountains, but once you've been to the top of one, you know you can go to the top of other ones too. And it doesn't make it easier the next time necessarily, but you are encouraged to do it again, and it might make starting it easier if you're going the self-produced route. It doesn't hurt to have those roles on a resume either.
Do you think there are roles that are especially valuable for an actor’s development? If so, what makes them stand out?
Anything where you’re asked to carry the play for entire scenes, preferably a whole bunch of them in close succession. I think that should happen early in an actor’s development. Long, sustained intensity, and traversing big dynamic shifts, any role where you go, “God, this is relentless.” I think you should take on roles that make you sweat, roles that make your friends say, are you sure you want to do that? Shakespeare and Ibsen are both great for that, the drive of the characters can totally ignite the actor.
Tackling Shakespeare is a beautiful challenge regardless of your position in the industry. What do you, as a director, bring to the project to guide these actors through the challenges of Shakespeare, through building that refined relationship?
I've been reading and playing Shakespeare's text since my own days as a student at Dawson, and I bring powerful lessons from way back then to the rehearsal room, as well as stuff I picked up from great directors and practitioners in London. I've also been in a lot of plays and shows myself, and done a lot of scary things on stage, so hopefully I can remind the actors that that's okay to be intimidated by the play, or the stakes, or the changes or whatever else, and make it easier for them to get out of their own way… I think that's most of what good directing is: be clear, and get the actors out of their own way so that their imaginations can take over, and their talents can take over, and elevate the action. I had some actors at Dawson once give me a thank you card that said “You’re a clear guy. Have a clear year.”
Ophelia (Alina Ichmouratov) - Photo by Frederic Veilleux
Typically when modernizing a Shakespeare piece, a director will pick another period with which to blend the distinctly Elizabethan work. Your production of Hamlet took a more casual approach in its modernization. For example, one character’s use of a plastic rolling suitcase, while another moments earlier was seen wearing chainmail. Can you elaborate on the artistic direction of the play, and some of the decisions made?
It wasn't on purpose exactly. We wanted the royalty to look like royalty, the ghost to look like a ghost, and as far as the rolling suitcase went, we had a leather bag before that but it just wasn't clear enough to the audience what was going on in the scene. It didn't have enough of a departure vibe attached to it. So often it just comes down to making it clear for the audience. I think it worked. We also refrained from using prop guns, and opted for prop daggers and swords instead.
The set design was very minimal, placing primary focus on the costuming. Can you discuss the inspiration for the costume design?
Most of the actors chose their own costumes. We went with what they had at home to save money, so a lot of suit jackets for the guys, and then we found appropriate costumes for the rest of the characters as needed. I think Shakespeare characters do well when they're dressed right… that was a feature of the [original] plays at the time, almost no set, just bare stage, and very attractive costumes.
You mention the demand of Shakespeare, the nuance, and the relationship with the text that an actor must develop. In this, the cast of Hamlet was inconsistent at times, with some of these relationships less refined than others. This, of course, takes time to achieve. But, as with everything, time equals money. With just over a month to put the production together, how much was the budget a factor in your rehearsal period?
I think anytime you do theatre, it's a labor of love, and we're certainly not well funded yet, so it was a factor. When I started the company, I wanted to see how quickly we could put a production together in terms of rehearsal hours per actor. The thing I didn't factor in was that I would have to be there for all of them, so it was still bloody exhausting in the end. We don't know a ton about Shakespeare's company's history, but one of the things we do know is that they put on an enormous number of plays every year, and likely their rehearsal period was very short. I wouldn't dare try it with a play as complex and dense as Hamlet, but I'd like to see if we could do a comedy with a week’s rehearsal sometime. I reckon you need a script prompter to tell you a line from off stage in case you forgot it, but I think it could work, and I think it could be quite exciting. I saw a production in Vancouver like that once, and it was great.
Let’s talk more about money. Producing is expensive. I understand that Dawson contributes to the project through a small grant. Can you elaborate on their involvement? Do you have any other benefactors at the moment? Did you fundraise outside of that? If so, how?
There were small grants available for projects that would benefit Dawson students, and so we were able to get a bit of support, luckily. The project materialized and moved so quickly that there wasn’t much time to make a proper move towards fundraising, but now that we exist and have had some success, it will be easier to fundraise for the future.
I'm a grad of the Professional Theatre Program myself (class of 2004) and so the connection [with Dawson] is very deep. I'm passing on things that I learned from the founders of the program who started it all back in 1973. I live near the Dome Theatre in St. Henri, and I give it a fist-bump when I walk past it. Our program has always had Shakespeare at the centre of it, and The Dawson Foundation also has supported the project with a small grant, which has been very helpful.
Hamlet (Elliot Million-Lovett) and Laertes (Luigi Tiberio) - Photo by Frederic Veilleux
What productions do you envision for the future of The Shakespeare Project? What’s next? Would you consider expanding to include other classical playwrights?
A comedy next would be nice, this one was pretty intense and pretty dense as well. There are so many funny people in the company that come from improv backgrounds that I'm sure we'd have a great time doing a comedy. There was a brief discussion about Twelfth Night, so maybe we'll give that a spin. I’d love to do Henry IV Part 1 at some point, too.
Our central focus will be on Shakespeare, but we would certainly open it up to include other classical playwrights in the future. Even as far as stuff like Martin Crimp, or Howard Barker, but those come with their own challenges. The great thing about renaissance plays is that the cast sizes are usually massive, so you can give a lot of young actors a good opportunity. Whatever happens, I'd like that to be the thing that's driving our company.
This production of Hamlet wasn’t some dusty relic dragged out for a high school field trip. Million-Lovett's Hamlet, imbued with a captivating blend of brooding intensity and soft, nearly understated power, presented a compelling departure from the conventional angsty prince. Max Paradis, in turn, portrayed the role of Polonius with remarkable conviction, a clever rendering of the fussy old fool, the meddling counselor in all his tragicomic complexity. Yet, it was Gabe Lezza's Horatio that truly captivated me; his performance was not merely an act of inhabiting a role, but rather a complete immersion in the world of the play. Every scene, every line resonated with an authenticity that drew the audience deeper into the narrative. That kind of commitment is what makes Shakespeare’s work popular, centuries after publication.
It’s ever so clear that passion projects like The Shakespeare Project, and their production of Hamlet, play an essential role in revitalizing Montreal’s repetitive, uninspired anglo theatre scene. In a city where Shakespeare is not often performed, this initiative proves that dedication and creativity can thrive outside the bounds of traditional funding and copy-paste casting. Matt Enos and his team have created a platform that nurtures both emerging and established talent, adding to the enrichment of the local arts community by making classical theatre more accessible and relevant. Their work reminds us that theatre, at its core, is about the love of storytelling and the collaborative effort to bring powerful stories to life. Do it because you fucking love it. The Shakespeare Project is testament to the importance of fostering artistic passion, regardless of institutional support.
