Ophelia is an original musical being presented at Fringe Art Space by Phoenix Tears Productions. The show re-imagines the story of Hamlet from the vantage point of his love, Ophelia. So what do you do when your boyfriend, the Prince of Denmark goes completely mad? I am sure this is a question many a young woman has had to ask herself.
The many facets of Ophelia’s personality are represented by a group of women who are actually flowers. Violet, represents her innocence and love of life, whereas Fennel represents her dark brooding moods. In all seven flowers represented her split personalities.
Laura Powalisz did a good job as the demure Ophilia. Megan Markham performed as rather funny drunk yellow flower. In a play within the play Megan sang a fast paced rap while the goth Lex Bentley head banged to the beat. Lex also had me laughing with an over the top performance as the ghost who haunted Hamlets dad. This might be a spoiler, but, Carson Holly as Violet had a stunning performance when she collapsed on stage. She was still for so long that I started to wonder how she could control her breath so well.
Ophelia had so much she could have learned from the multiple floral personalities but in the end she kept a blind faith in her love and when madness prevailed she gave up on life. Pam noticed that throughout the play Ophelia wore different colored belts. White for innocence and in the end black for mourning. When focusing on a sketch I can miss such subtleties. A carving on the three isn’t meant to represent water, H20 but Hamlet + Ophelia. In the end that carving was hacked out and marred.
Some of the musical numbers were quite passable while others could use further rehearsals. I admire that local production companies are taking such bold chances.