Performances of Hamlet’s “OPHELIA”

1. Performances of Hamlet’s “OPHELIA” By: Maggie Greene Kayla Persichetti Kate Corcoran Jaclyn Marks

2. Performance Approach • Plays such as Hamlet have been performed hundreds of times in several different methods, in many languages, in different time periods, and with different approaches. • By studying various performances of Hamlet and the way specific characters are performed, in this case Ophelia, it is possible to examine the underlying meanings of the original play. • Actors and directors sometimes incorrectly portray certain characters, but it can still give the reader insight to see these performances. • The audience’s response also plays a key role in criticism of Hamlet. • Certain points about the play will never be agreed on, and an individual’s personal experience and beliefs can affect the way they view the play.

3. Jean Simmons as Ophelia • Jean is an actress that was born in London in 1929. • She starred in the version of Hamlet by Laurence Olivier in the 1940’s age of Shakespeare. • She began acting at age 14 and playing Ophelia made her want to be serious actress. It also made her a star. • She was nominated at the Academy Awards for best supporting actress for her performance in Hamlet • She was in over 70 movies and won 2 Oscars. • In 1968 she sought treatment for her alcohol addiction.

4. The Film • Olivier’s Hamlet has been critiqued as “the artistic reprise of a childhood sexual trauma suffered by the director.” • In Olivier’s Hamlet, much of the Shakespearian text was cut out. • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern disappeared entirely and other major textual alterations occured. • Hamlet was played by the director, Lawrence Olivier. • The film’s prologue was very controversial. It seemed to reduce the play to a story about a man who could not make up his mind.

5. Female Approach • When looking for a traditional iconic Ophelia, Lawrence Olivier’s Hamlet is the benchmark by which all film adaptations should be compared. • The iconic Ophelia is picturesque and obedient with a goal to please everyone.  • After she becomes mad, Ophelia's hair is wild, like her nature.  • Simmons played Ophelia as a secluded, protected, well-brought up young girl, whose sudden exposure to the backwash of jealousy, intrigue, vendetta and murder is simply too much for her

6. Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia • Helena is an actress born in London that had no formal acting training. • She starred in Franco Zeffirelli’s version of Hamlet, which was released in 1990 and is the only Hamlet movie set in Shakespearian time. • This was the first film by Icon Production. • The film was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. • Carter plays opposite Mel Gibson as Hamlet. • Helena is innocent, naïve, and obedient but in her acting, her madness seems real and tangible.

7. The Film and Helena’s Version • Zeffirelli’s Hamlet is regarded as a textual realization. • The film is influenced by Gibson’s earlier action-man roles and the movie is much more fast-paced than other versions. • Helena as Ophelia conveys the impression of a woman that thinks for herself. She opposes her father with her defiant looks and challenges what men expect of her.

8. Zeffirelli offers a fully sexual Ophelia. • In the mad scene, she is dirty, sweaty, wild-eyed, and half dressed. • She presses herself against the guard while singing songs. • She sits on the thrown in Gertrude's seat while Leartes, Gertrude, and Claudius watch her.

9. Helena thought Ophelia was under-written, but she tried to make Ophelia as strong as possible. • Helena thought one of the hardest parts of playing Ophelia was pretending she was dead and being completely relaxed on her close-ups. • Helena plays Ophelia as a victim of emotional double-binding and sexual trauma. • She also invokes the recovered memory hysteria of the 1980s. • She appears to be a generation younger than Glenn Close (Gertrude) and Mel Gibson (Hamlet).

10. The “Mad Scenes” • Epitome of the preoccupation, child abuse. • Girlish madness-playful, childish, vulnerability • Doomed victim of sexual abuse mischievously replaying a taboo scene before skipping pathetically toward death. • Express a traumatized adolescent state of mind rooted in sexual transgression.

12. Kate Winslet as Ophelia • Kate Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer that is known for playing many diverse characters. • She was born October 5th 1975 in Reading, England as the daughter of a barmaid and a swimming pool contractor. • Kate played Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's film version of Hamlet which was released in the 1990’s era of Shakespeare and was nominated for 4 Oscars.

13. Branagh’s Hamlet, which runs over 4 hours, was first unabridged theatrical film version of the play. • The film includes all of Shakespeare’s original text. • Branagh directed the film so it would be performed in a way that he thought Shakespeare would appreciate. • In the film, Branagh stars as Hamlet opposite Winslet.

14. Kate Winslet’s Version • When Kate plays Ophelia, it is made clear that she is no virgin when she is shown twice in bed with Hamlet. It seems hypocritical when she then chooses her father over Hamlet and Hamlet’s feelings of betrayal are understandable. • When Hamlet brutally accuses Ophelia, Winslet makes the character seem as though she deserves it. • Branagh’s version seems to doom Ophelia more than the original Shakespearian Hamlet. This is possibly because the film was released in the post-feminist era and it seems appropriate to blame Ophelia for being a traitor to the man she loved.

15. No Audition? • For Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet, Kate Winslet was not required to audition. • She had previously auditioned for the role of “Elizabeth” in Branagh’s Frankenstein in 1994. • When Branagh was casting the roles for Hamlet, he chose Kate without so much as a reading. • When they began filming, Branagh wanted Kate to play Ophelia with spunk, and not be limp or submissive.

16. Kate is one of the Best • Many Ophelias play the sweet-but dumb card and are bossed around by all the men in the play. • When Kate’s Ophelia speaks to her brother, she is intelligent and witty and her mad scenes of some of the most vivid and startling. • Kate’s performance is that of a strong and rebellious woman. • Her straitjacket and padded cell show how dangerous her madness is, as well as her desperation. • Winslet embodies the relatively liberated though ultimately thwarted 1990s.

17. In Act 4, Scene 5 Winslet takes a different approach by falling to her knees during song. • Winslet’s Ophelia wears white, indicating virginal and vacant, but she also shows sexual tension. • The audience feels bad for Kate’s Ophelia, because she has the evils of secrecy thrust upon her, rather than seeking them out herself. • Winslet’s character is also sprayed by a hose in the film, foreshadowing her watery death.

18. Video Clip of Kate Winslet

19. Marianne Faithfull as Ophelia • Marianne is an actress, singer, songwriter, and diarist born in London. • She played Ophelia in Tony Richardson’s Hamlet in 1969 opposite Nicol Williamson as Hamlet. • She struggled with drug abuse in her life.

20. Playing Ophelia • Marianne played Ophelia as a drugged, rebellious youth. • She was very depressed at the time and took heroin before performing her mad scene. • In her mad scene, Marianne is shot in close up and she mocks the King and Queen defiantly.

21. She was a youthful sixties icon and was cast at 17 years old. • Nicol Williamson looks much older than Marianne in the film and an attraction between drugs, music, unbalanced femininity, and male students who should have graduated long ago explains the generations. • As if Faithfull really was Ophelia, later in her life she attempted suicide after her boyfriend drowned.

22. Casting Marianne Faithfull had intentional consequences. She had a reputation that involved drugs, rock and roll, and sex and a relationship with Mick Jagger that would definitely affect the audience’s interpretation of Ophelia. • This is using cultural criticism, showing how perception of Ophelia is shaped by popular culture- Marianne Faithfull in the media.

23. When Richardson directed Faithfull in her role as Ophelia, he raises the question of the character’s innocence and hints that she is a closet whore. • This would indicate that her father’s containment of her is necessary. • When Ophelia breaks down into madness, she reveals her familiarity with sex.