TheArchive presents a brand new play “Ophelia”.
Ophelia. Daughter of Claudius. Sister of Laertes. Lover of Hamlet’s. The property of Shakespeare. Grasping flowers in her palms begging someone would listen. Now we are listening. Ophelia reclaims the voice of Shakespeare’s most silenced character, this is her testimony, telling the story of a young woman caught between love, loyalty, and betrayal in a world determined to define her. As she navigates trauma and family expectations, Ophelia fights to reclaim her narrative and find strength amid chaos.
Ophelia is one of Shakespeare’s most discussed yet least-heard characters. What made you want to give her a voice of her own, and what did you feel was missing from the ways she has traditionally been represented in Hamlet?
After reading Hamlet and working on the play very closely in university, we believed all the characters were extremely fascinating and had so many layers to dive into. However, when you dissect the text and Ophelia, being considered one of the crucial characters, her involvement throughout the play doesn’t reflect this. At points she feels as a device to drive Hamlet’s story forward, rather than entirely human. All her emotions have been dismissed throughout the play and by the end she was painted as “mad”. Ophelia describes Hamlet’s appearance before her in Act 2, Scene 1, to which her father responds with the word, “lovesickness”. It was shocking to us that no one seemed to pick up on what had happened in that moment and we knew we had to write a play capturing the story behind this scene.
Your production describes Ophelia as being caught between love, loyalty and betrayal in a world determined to define her. How have you approached the question of her agency without simply imposing a contemporary idea of empowerment onto a Shakespearean character?
When we started working on Ophelia, we were very conscious on not setting the story in a world which feels “too” contemporary, as it can be so much easier for us in this day and age to either pass judgement on the behaviour of women from Shakespearean time or push them to feel empowered, rather than understanding why they would behave the way they did. We decided to set the play in a “time in-between”, we used costumes and set pieces that you could see in a more period accurate version of Hamlet while using more of a contemporary language. We watch Ophelia struggle with the idea of being an individual outside of being defined by the men around her. She doesn’t find the power to stand up to Hamlet until the very end of the story, because of the expectations of everyone as well as herself. We made sure we kept her struggles from the text of Hamlet the same, not straying too much from her original motivations.
The play is described as Ophelia’s “testimony”. Why was that idea of testimony important to you, and does it change the relationship between Ophelia and the audience — perhaps asking us to become witnesses rather than simply spectators?
We knew one of the devices we wanted to use was Ophelia speaking to the audience. The play is written so you feel as if you know Ophelia closer than any of the characters within the play. Asking the audience to become witness creates a more active audience rather than just a passive passenger in the seat. We strive to make a difference with this story and are hoping that when people leave the auditorium, they can think about situations in their personal life which remind them of the play. Ophelia wants to make an impact on the audience’s decision making and them question where they stand. There is a specific scene that explains our stance with this question, which is the court scene. We completely change the format of the storytelling and turn all the house lights up. This way, both Ophelia and Hamlet can see everyone in the audience clearly. The audience can no longer sit comfortably and enjoy the play. They have become active participants in what is happening in from of them. Our idea was to make the spectators unable to escape the horror Ophelia must endure the entire time.
This production began as an R&D project before developing into a public performance. How did the rehearsal process reshape the piece? Were there discoveries about Ophelia, Hamlet or their relationship that significantly changed your original conception of the play?
Our R&D was quite an intense process, we had around three weeks of rehearsals where we weren’t afraid of diving into every single part of the play. The actors did an incredible job capturing emotions we had on the page and taking it further than we could have ever imagined. We always believed the casting would dictate the relationship, and it would change what we had pictured initially. As a three hander, we were aware we needed to get the dynamic on stage right. The R&D helped us with understanding the story so much clearer and seeing which parts of the play worked and which didn’t so much. It was also very helpful to have the actors involved in the process and speaking freely about their ideas. We were able to collaborate and will be taking all the feedback on board as we develop the story further. We are extremely excited to work on this piece again and put even more energy into the process. The show will be coming back in March 2027, this time to the Studio at The New Wimbledon Theatre.
There has been a long tradition of writers, directors and performers reclaiming marginalised or silenced characters from the classical canon. What do you think theatre gains from returning to Shakespeare through characters such as Ophelia — and what can she allow us to talk about today that Hamlet itself perhaps does not?
Hamlet is a classic for a reason. It has worked for so many years and is enjoyed to this day. However, the language and setting can sometimes not be as accessible. Especially younger audiences are turning away from classical text, meaning we are losing engagement with the art form. In TheArchive, we always say we want to bring the theatre enjoyers and the people who don’t like theatre together and make sure they have a great time when watching our work. That is why believe re-working such a classic can reach wider audiences and cater to people with so many interests. While this might seem very ambitious, we strive to make theatre the most engaged with art form on the planet and we believe by bringing different audiences together, we can achieve so.