Hamlet on ice

“Eallit dahje ii eallit? Das dat jerro.”

That’s how the famous soliloquy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, from Act III, Scene I of Shakespeare’s play — in sounds in Sámi.

The world première of Hamlet in the Sámi language took place on an ice stage, when the 70-minute version of the play opened at the Jukkajärvi Ice Globe Theatre.

The scale-model ice replica of a theatre in London, England, is located at the Jukkajärvi Ice Hotel near Kiruna, a small community in the Swedish Sámi territory. The 100-bed Jukkajärvi Ice Hotel is in its 13th year of operation and features an ice chapel and an “Absolut Ice Bar.”

Alex Scherpf’s Beaivvás Sámi Teáhter, a group of actors based in Kautokeino in northern Norway, performed the play. Performances are due to run until April, and to date 12,000 tickets have been booked— ice doesn’t constitute much of a fire risk, so local fire officials have not set an upper limit for the number of spectators who can attend performances.