Review: Ophelia at the Blue Theater

While this ambitious effort reveals a deep understanding of the classical rhythm and language mastered four hundred years ago, it also seems to presume its audience has a substantial familiarity with the original texts. For those of us who have not seen Hamlet since the ninth grade, there are certain story leaps that feel somewhat large and baffling. Without the advantage of a Cliff’s Notes review, Hamlet and Ophelia’s transition from giddy school kids making love in secret to murderous and suicidal psychotics could use a little more fleshing out. The play, at times, feels more like a side car to the original rather than a stand alone piece.

Still, the production is beautiful. Five white-draped Ophelias represent the layered psyche of the whole—whispering, echoing and shadowing the internal dialogue of this simultaneously naïve and complex character. Each takes hold of the spotlight for a brief torrent of egotistical lust, anger or despair before drowning in an on-stage pool ripe with metaphor. At critical plot points, the Ophelias syncopate into the highlight of the performance: jarring dream sequences that paint melancholy disturbance like a surrealist film. As the Ophelias drop away, Ophelia #5 Emily Tindall’s sad, sad violin somehow captures the feeling of the entire piece with sparse flats and minors erasing the blurry line between dream and reality.

With a strong showing from the Ophelias and Gabriel Luna as both Hamlet and Polonius, the cast pulls off the show as if it were a classical stage piece. Often, it is hard to tell what is original text and what is new, a fact that attests to Wills’ clear understanding of Shakespeare’s works. If Hamlet really is the result of many writers’ voices, perhaps plays like Ophelia continue to tell the story.