When Hamlet speaks to Lebanon

Shakespeare's Hamlet, a story about power, justice, and a state in crisis, returns to the Lebanese stage as a reminder of what theater is meant to do. Not merely to entertain, but to confront, question, and awaken.  Nearly six decades after first stepping into the role, Lebanese theater veteran Refaat Torbey is performing “Hamlet” once again, this time, alone on stage.  What brought him back to Shakespeare’s most tortured prince is unfinished business with the text, with himself, and with a country still grappling with questions of power, justice, and identity. The performance is presented as part of Annahar Café’s cultural program.

“I played Hamlet 55 years ago, and I play Hamlet today,” he says. “And every time I play Hamlet, it’s completely different. Never once was it the same.” Now 77, he is performing the tragedy as a one-man show, transforming a play written for dozens of characters into a single voice recalling a life already lost.

A prince who Never leaves you

For the actor, Hamlet has never been just another role. “I started my theatrical life with Hamlet in 1973,” he recalls. “And since then, Hamlet never leaves your head. especially ‘To be or not to be.’ I always taught this text to my students. Always.”

He argues that the famous soliloquy is often misunderstood as youthful despair, when in fact, it speaks more to lived experience. ‘To be or not to be’ is not for someone in their twenties,” he says. “It’s for someone deeply ripened by life. No one at 23 can truly understand Hamlet unless he is Hamlet.” In this version, Hamlet is no longer a young prince caught in political intrigue, but a voice looking back, reflecting on betrayal, power, and moral paralysis from the other side of life.

Why Hamlet is Political in Lebanon

While Shakespeare wrote for Elizabethan England, the actor insists that Hamlet today speaks directly to Lebanon’s reality. “Hamlet is political,” he says. “What does he demand in the end? He demands the crown and the state. And we have lost both.”

For him, the play is not only about personal grief or revenge, but about the collapse of institutions and the longing for legitimacy, themes painfully familiar to Lebanese audiences. “This is why Hamlet matters here,” he adds. “Because it speaks about authority, justice, and what happens when a country is left without moral leadership.” In that sense, the performance becomes less about revisiting a classic and more about holding up a mirror to the present.

Where institutions have failed

Beyond artistic choices, the actor places responsibility on cultural policy, or the lack of it. He criticizes the absence of sustained public support for theatre, from education systems to municipalities and major festivals.

“Theatre should be part of education,” he says. “Hamlet is in the official school curriculum, so why aren’t schools bringing students to watch it?” He also points to structural problems within academic institutions, where experienced artists are pushed out due to rigid retirement laws.

“There is no age limit for art,” he says. “The older you get in theatre, the richer your performance becomes.” In his view, Lebanon’s cultural decline is not due to a lack of artists, but to systems that undervalue experience, continuity, and artistic depth.

A bet on culture and in Beirut

Despite his harsh critique, the actor remains deeply hopeful, not only about theatre, but about Beirut’s cultural role in the region. “Our bet is on Beirut as the cultural capital of the Arab world,” he says. “It must return to that role.”

For him, performing Hamlet today is an act of resistance against cultural erosion, a refusal to accept that serious theatre no longer has a place in public life. “Why do we do theatre in a country like this?” he asks. “Because if culture disappears, everything else follows.”

And so, at 77, he returns to the same role that launched his career, not to relive the past, but to confront the present, armed with a text that has survived centuries because it continues to ask the same unbearable questions:

What is justice?
Who deserves power?
And what does it mean to act when the world is broken?