“Poor Ophelia was never given much of a chance to shine in “Hamlet,”… In “Twelve Ophelias,” a free summer show outdoors at the McCarren Park Pool, she finally gets her chance to speak her mind. …The setting for this production, by the Woodshed Collective, is lovely, and the word “free” in front of “theater” is a wonderful thing – Passion is exchanged, (and) female empowerment is explored. ” – Neil Genzlinger NYTimes.
“It’s absolutely refreshing—in the present-day theatre world full of shows that can easily be TV sitcoms or TV dramas—to see a production that’s truly, genuinely, wonderfully theatrical. I applaud Woodshed Collective for their risk-taking project—this environmental site-specific show that does justice to Caridad Svich’s lyrical play Twelve Ophelias. … But what makes this production so compelling and unique is the beautiful coordination of three main elements: the organic set-design by Gabriel Hainer Evansohn, who uses the empty McCarren pool in a very intelligent and effective way, with attention to details and symbols/metaphors at the same time; the precise and imaginative “stage” direction of Teddy Bergman; and the music written and performed live by the arresting Jones Street Boys (with lyrics by Svich). The atmosphere they manage to induce in this empty pool—transformed into a performance space with rope-roads, wooden-decks, plastic leaves, and imaginary rivers—has intimacy, sensuality, and vibrancy. No wonder people come to have picnics and chomp on pieces of watermelons and chocolate while letting themselves be transfigured by the show (as the ladies sitting on blue beach rugs in front of me did). The sky above us, changing colors; the spectators sitting in a circle, like a breathing amphitheatre; the engaging actors telling a new old story—it sounds like a perfect way of spending a hot-hot-hot evening in New York, doesn’t it?” – nytheatre.com
” a deconstructed masterstroke. ” – NYPress.
the Jones Street Boys, which provides the play’s most authentic Smoky Mountain grace notes, despite the fact that none of its members hail from south of the Mason-Dixon line.The show begins with one of those great coups de theatre that have kicked off shows like “Black Watch” in the recent past: the sudden, unexpected appearance of a character or an object draws us in, especially when we can see all around us for hundreds of yards. Director Teddy Bergman and his designers give the play life aided by their surroundings — McCarren Park Pool is undoubtedly a neato venue for any aspiring experimental theater troupe. Bergman can ominously bring in the characters from yards offstage; Jessica Pabst can dress some of her actors in flowing garments to make use of the inevitable wind; the whole crew can use the encroaching darkness that falls shortly after the 8 p.m. curtain time. ” – Variety.
“Svich revives the swamped Ophelia in Appalachia, where her characters indulge in overripe language (”I am become bewildered.”) without seeming out of place. In this backwoods Elsinore, Hamlet (Dan Cozzens) has become a barefoot Rude boy, Gertrude runs a brothel and lustful Ophelia (Pepper Binkley) can’t wait to get to them “country matters.” But can she shuck her fate? Girlfriend, count on it. Svich has a lovely way with old stories—her looping, just-shy-of-purple poetry lets her remake the Greeks and Shakespeare with panache. And thematically, director Teddy Bergen’s choice of the waterless, cracked McCarren Park Pool basin works: We’re in a dry hole thirsty for language.” – TimeOut NY.
“Director Teddy Bergman has given the play a spirited production, …Woodshed Collective has staged the play’s professional premiere in the husk of the McCarren Park Pool—a fascinating space with watery connotations.” – Village Voice.
” At the center of the sprawling plateau of graffiti-covered concrete, underneath a vast, beautiful darkening sky, Ophelia emerges from a pond into some sort of Appalachian alternate universe, where Gertrude runs a brothel, Hamlet wears a wife-beater, and everyone speaks with their own take on a Tennessee accent.” – The New Yorker
12 O’s Features
“The teeming hordes of tourists who descend on Manhattan in the summer rarely stray far from Times Square in search of theater. But there is plenty of stage activity in the other boroughs too. A whimsical riff on ”Hamlet” opens this week at an appropriately unusual site, the McCARREN PARK POOL in scruffy-hip Brooklyn. ”TWELVE OPHELIAS,” by CARIDAD SVICH, imagines an afterlife for Elsinore’s unluckiest lass. Ophelia pops out of the water, squeeze-dries her skirt, tosses aside the water-logged flowers and sets out for new adventures in a new world. Elsinore, you see, looks a lot like Appalachia in this twisted take on the tragedy. A bluegrass band, the Jones Street Boys, supplies an original score for this production from the Woodshed Collective, founded by Vassar alumni. Opens on Thursday, Lorimer Street, between Driggs Avenue and Bayard Street, Greenpoint, mccarrenpark.com; free.” – Charles Isherwood, NYTimes.
Twelve Ophelias centers on Hamlet’s Ophelia coming back to life, out of the water, to try to overcome her history and forge a new destiny for herself. She finds herself in an Appalachian Elsinore, Denmark by way of Deliverance—where Gertrude runs a brothel, Hamlet and Horatio slum it, and nothing is what it seems. In this squarely American and gritty interpretation of the Hamlet myth, Twelve Ophelias asks how it is possible to break old cycles and start afresh when the past so completely permeates your life.
The production followed on the heels of the Public Theater’s presentation of Hamlet in Central Park, creating an inter-borough dialogue—Hamlet’s in the Park, Ophelia’s in the Pool. Twelve Ophelias features a live and local rock/roots/bluegrass band, The Jones Street Boys (www.thejonesstreetboys.com), performing new original music, and showcases a host of talented young performers and designers.
