Performances of Hamlet’s OPHELIA

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Performances of Hamlets OPHELIA

• By Maggie Greene
• Kayla Persichetti
• Kate Corcoran
• Jaclyn Marks

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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 audiences response also plays a key role in
  criticism of Hamlet.
• Certain points about the play will never be
  agreed on, and an individuals personal
  experience and beliefs can affect the way they
  view the play.

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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 1940s 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.

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The Film

• Oliviers Hamlet has been critiqued as the
  artistic reprise of a childhood sexual trauma
  suffered by the director.
• In Oliviers 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 films prologue was very controversial. It
  seemed to reduce the play to a story about a man
  who could not make up his mind.

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Female Approach

• When looking for a traditional iconic Ophelia,
  Lawrence Oliviers 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

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Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia

• Helena is an actress born in London that had no
  formal acting training.
• She starred in Franco Zeffirellis 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.

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The Film and Helenas Version

• Zeffirellis Hamlet is regarded as a textual
  realization.
• The film is influenced by Gibsons 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.

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• 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.

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• 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).

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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.

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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
  1990s era of Shakespeare and was nominated for 4
  Oscars.

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• Branaghs Hamlet, which runs over 4 hours, was
  first unabridged theatrical film version of the
  play.
• The film includes all of Shakespeares 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.

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Kate Winslets 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 Hamlets
  feelings of betrayal are understandable.
• When Hamlet brutally accuses Ophelia, Winslet
  makes the character seem as though she deserves
  it.
• Branaghs 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.

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No Audition?

• For Kenneth Branaghs Hamlet, Kate Winslet was
  not required to audition.
• She had previously auditioned for the role of
  Elizabeth in Branaghs 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.

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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 Kates Ophelia speaks to her brother, she is
  intelligent and witty and her mad scenes of some
  of the most vivid and startling.
• Kates 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.

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

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Video Clip of Kate Winslet
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Marianne Faithfull as Ophelia

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

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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.

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• 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.

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• 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
  audiences interpretation of Ophelia.
• This is using cultural criticism, showing how
  perception of Ophelia is shaped by popular
  culture- Marianne Faithfull in the media.

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