WRITTEN BY CARIDAD SVICH
DIRECTED BY TEDDY BERGMAN
WHERE | McCarren Park Pool
Lorimer and Driggs, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York
WHEN | Summer 2008
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, performing new original music, and showcases a host of talented young performers and designers.
