Most high school students who have studied "Hamlet" remember the character Ophelia and her love affair with Hamlet as intriguing and perplexing.
"The Secret Love Life of Ophelia," a new production at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre, attempts to address the lingering curiosity "Hamlet" fans may have about this interesting character and provide some answers. Unfortunately, the play, directed by Wesley Savick, doesn't do a very good job, effectively raising more questions than anything else.
The story takes place in epistolary form, with little interaction between the infamous lovers (who are, in fact, the only characters). A successful play in which letters are the characters' only means of communication is a hard feat, and this attempt falls several feet too short.
The plot attempts to uncover the fascinating relationship that is relatively minor in Shakespeare's "Hamlet." In theory this seems like a rather enticing idea for a play, but while trying to shed light on the relationship between the two characters, the playwright, Steven Berkoff, flattens much of Shakespeare's original brilliance. The murder of Hamlet's father is never directly addressed in this rendition, nor is the effect that it has on Hamlet. The idea of Ophelia's madness is also overturned and transformed merely into her overwhelming desire for Hamlet.
The performance runs at only an hour and 20 minutes with no intermission, but is rather repetitive in its sentiments and therefore feels much longer. It is very difficult to feel any real emotional connection with either of the two characters. Stacy Fisher, who plays Ophelia, is rather whimsical and does a decent job with the material she has been given, though there is nothing special about her performance. Her character's thoughts and actions get redundant and much of the play is spent waiting for her to go through with the suicide.
Aaron Pitre takes on the role of Hamlet, and although he does a fine job, he fails to gain sufficient sympathy from the audience.
The lack of actual character interaction is an interesting approach, but the dialogue fails to hold on its own. The language deviates too far from that of Shakespeare; it is almost modern at times, and Shakespeare's subtlety is thereby lost. Berkoff, who creates an overtly sexual dialogue between Hamlet and Ophelia, leaves little to the imagination. One begins to question whether there is any love between the two at all or if their relationship is just lust springing from repressed sexual desire.
The stage and setting that The Nora Theatre Company creates within the Playwrights' Theatre is very artfully done, with only a wooden, circular pathway surrounding a pool of water and little else. The lighting and music are also creative and on-cue, but the effects are not enough to salvage the play's other shortcomings.
Playwright Steven Berkoff is a talented director, writer and actor. He has penned multiple stage plays, acted in films including "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) and "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984), and also published several books on Shakespeare, including 1994's "I am Hamlet." It is both surprising and disappointing that his work this time fails to do justice to his expertise on the subject.
"The Secret Love Life of Ophelia" does have some genuine moments of creativity and is certainly provocative (if only in its explicitness), but, in the end, it only goes to show that perhaps the love life of Ophelia has been kept a secret for a reason.
