Jaime Cruz, one of the eight cast members with Down syndrome who star in this “Hamlet,”  mimics the posture of Laurence Olivier behind him, who leans against a rock reciting the “To Be Or Not To Be” soliloquy in a projection of a 1948 recording.

Álvaro Toledo, one of the other castmates, objects. He asks the audience to raise hands if we would rather hear from the eight of them rather than the famous Shakespearian. All hands go up. Toldeo offers the soliloquy as a rap..in Spanish.

This in a nutshell is the “Hamlet” that has been written and directed by Chela De Ferrari, the founder of the 23-year-old Teatro La Plaza of Peru, which uses Shakespeare’s play less as text than pretext for a celebration of the cast – and by the cast – not despite of their genetic condition but because of it. This “Hamlet” ends not in a bloodbath but in a dance party, the cast urging the audience to join them on stage. Having toured some twenty countries, the playful production is making a brief stop at Polonsky Shakespeare Center through April 4.

Lord Olivier’s is not the only cameo. Cruz appears later in front of a montage of some two dozen actors who famously have portrayed the Prince of Denmark, and at one point even conducts an interview virtually with  Ian McKellan  (Sir Ian’s second virtual screen appearance in New York this season) asking seven questions, starting with  “how did you prepare to play Hamlet?” and ending with “Seven: Would you like to travel to Perú?” Video projections abound in this “Hamlet,” which for some reason begins with a long, graphic video of a woman giving birth. 

Sometimes the scenes are recognizably adapted from specific scenes in Shakespeare’s play, albeit translated loosely into Spanish, and retranslated even more loosely back into English for the captions. But there are pointed alterations even here. in the “Get thee to a nunnery” scene between Hamlet and Ophelia, what Shakespeare wrote as 

‘Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be
a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest,
but yet I could accuse me of such things that it
were better my mother had not borne me..” 

Becomes Octavio Bernaza as Hamlet saying to Cristina León Barandiarán as Ophenila

“Hey, why don´t you go to a nunnery?
Why wouldst thou be a breeder of retards?
It were better my mother had not borne me. Mothers only bring imbecile children into this world.
Get thee to a nunnery!”

There are more direct scenes about the attitudes of society towards those with Down syndrome that more or less dispenses with Shakespeare, such as an interview that Cristina conducts with “Jaimlet” 

Cristina: What annoys you about society?
Jaimlet: Assumptions and prejudices.
Cristina: What kind of prejudices?
Jaimlet: People assume we are like children who never grow up.
Cristina: Have you been called ‘a little angel.’
Jaimlet: Yes, I hate that.

Jaimlet, to clarify is Jaime Cruz. As he explains:  “I am Jaime playing Hamlet. I am both people at the same time.”

Teatro La Plaza’s Hamlet
Polonsky Shakespeare Center through April 4
Running time: 95 minutes
Tickets: $70 – $132
Written and directed by Chela De Ferrari
Aassociate direction and dramaturgy by Luis Alberto León,Jonathan Oliveros, and Claudia Tangoa; music direction and vocal coaching by Alessandra Rodriguez; visuals by Lucho Soldevilla; choreography by Mirella Carbone; lighting design by Jesus Reyes
Cast: Octavio Bernaza, Lucas Demarchi, Jaime Cruz, Manuel García, Diana Gutiérrez,Cristina León Barandiarán, Álvaro Toledo, and Ximena Rodríguez