Enter Ophelia
By Candace Miles, Madelaine Nunn and Anna Rodway
Director: John Kachoyan
Cast: Amanda LaBonte, Sophie Lampel, Candace Miles, Madelaine Nunn and
Anna Rodway
Set/costume design: Laura Hawkins
Lighting design: Steve Hendy
Sound design: Russell Goldsmith
Presented by the National Gallery of Australia at the John Fairfax Theatre. April 27th. 2019.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
As one of its offerings to accompany its pre-Raphaelite Love and Desire Exhibition, the National Gallery of Australia’s
Public Programs have presented Enter
Ophelia, a compact, contemporary interpretation of Shakespeare’s Ophelia.
Two professional theatre ensembles from Melbourne, Essential Theatre and Three
Birds Theatre have collaborated on a work, especially created
to highlight Ophelia’s character in the dangerous, dark and uncertain court of
Denmark.
Written by Candace Miles, Madelaine Nunn and
Anna Rodway, the hour long performance bears the hallmarks of a collectively
devised work, tightly written and precisely directed as a stylized
representation of Shakespeare’s characters from Hamlet. The opening scene surprises with its contemporary
caricature of society women at a cocktail party. It exudes artifice, clothed in
privilege and preening posturing. In the midst of this Kardashianesque coterie
of celebrity stands Ophelia (Amanda La Bonte) Shakespeare’s tragic heroine,
more sinned against than sinning, poor victim of her male-dominated society. Spurned
by her lover and controlled by her father, Polonius (Sophie Lampel standing on
a chair) and her brother Laertes she struggles to assert identity.
Director John Kachoyan holds a tight rein on
the various segments of the short performance, choreographing the piece from
moments of frenetic dance to eerily robotic gesture to a chorus of women,
sheltering under a luminescent umbrella to escape the storm that rages over
Elsinore. Shakespeare’s text merges with colloquial speech and word association
games that hurl Ophelia into a world of confusion and a watery grave in the
most effective moment of the show where Shakespeare’s poetry and the tragedy of
her death bring to mind Sir John Everett Millais’s centrepiece for the gallery’s
remarkable exhibition of Love and Desire.
 |
| OPhelia by Sir John EVerett Millais |
Enter
Ophelia offers little insight into a deeper understanding
of Shakespeare’s character. An all female cast in contrast to the all male cast
of Shakespeare’s time directs our attention to the injustice of Ophelia’s
treatment by male dominated society. However, Ophelia remains a victim, haunted
and tormented by a court dominated by men. Love and desire in this production slice
sharply at the frailty of the human heart in a production that is carefully
orchestrated, tightly scripted and stylized in its staging. The danger of a
show that appears more driven by concept than narrative and contemporary
experimentation than presentation of the original work is that is can appear
elusive, especially if an audience is unfamiliar with the original source,
Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. In a
production that moves so quickly and introduces snatches of dialogue from
different Shakespearian plays as well as primarily from Hamlet, it is difficult to empathize with the central character,
who, unlike Shakespeare’s character, has little opportunity to develop
relationships and establish a distinct character.
There was no programme available before the
show to provide an audience with an introductory insight into the approach that
Essential Theatre and Three Birds Theatre were taking with this interpretation.
This work would also have benefited from a Q and A session with the actors
after the performance. It is a tightly directed and confidently performed
professional show with clever moments and imaginative insight into one of
Shakespeare’s more enigmatic female characters. I left the Fairfax Theatre of
the National Gallery, feeling as though I had enjoyed well-presented art, but without
the audio guide to make my experience completely satisfying.