Thursday 7th April 2016 - Ophelia (Hamlet)

I chose to use this monologue for the Shakespeare festival as there is opportunity for movement when performing this, my original idea was to perform it as if I was walking in to talk to her father at the same time as looking back to check if Hamlet has followed her. This is because she is trying to express her concern for Hamlet. She is telling a story of something that has just happened and therefore I wanted to use physical theatre to act some of the things she is explaining, such as "he took me by the wrist".

Because I was unsure of some of the language used in this monologue, I decided to find a modern day interprepation to make sure that I undertood exactly what was happening in this scene so that I could interpret it better. I found this translation that helped me block simple movement that could accompany it.

Father, I was up in my room sewing when Hamlet came in with no hat on his head, his shirt unbuttoned, and his stockings dirty, undone, and down around his ankles. He was pale as his undershirt, and his knees were knocking together. He looked so out of sorts, as if he’d just come back from hell. He came up to me. I’m not sure, but I’m afraid he might be. He grabbed me by the wrist and held me hard, then backed away an arm’s length and just looked at me, staring at me like an artist about to paint my picture. He stayed like that a long time.

Once I had learnt this monologue and was more confident with the ideas and characters behind the text I started to add more movement into the performance. Because my character is very paniced and is running in to tell her father about something, Rachel  suggested that I said the first part of this monologue whilst walking in as this describes the situation more and sets the scene. She also asked me to run round the room three times so that I was saying the text slightllyy out of breath which is what my character would be doing anyway. After listening to her comments and suggestions, I chose to use them to develop my performance in further rehearsals. However I needed to make sure that although I was talking fast I didn't lose any other the words that were written by losing my diction and articulation. To avoid this I went through it slowely to make sure that I was pronouncing every word correctly and taking pauses in places that made sense.