heartbroken about past events

[tempestsarekind]

Reading an interview with Gugu Mbatha-Raw pulled up this tidbit:

At RADA, Gugu’s contemporaries included Ben Whishaw, Tom Hiddleston and Andrea Riseborough, all former nominees for the Rising Star gong. Shortly after graduation, she was Juliet to Andrew Garfield’s Romeo at the Manchester Royal Exchange, when they were both 22.Well, this is the

Comments

[lareinenoire]

OMG, I bet she was such an amazing Juliet. And a wonderful Ophelia too.

[tempestsarekind]

I'm so mad at myself for not finding the time to take notes after that production of Hamlet! I know that I really liked Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ophelia, but now I can't remember why… And I have an odd hang-up about Ophelia, which is that I always want her to be actively trying to communicate (especially with Laertes) - almost as if she has aphasia and nothing can come out but songs and rhymes. But a lot of time the direction just goes for "heartbreaking spectacle" instead. I can't remember whether this production did that (see above), but if it did, I might not have liked her as much as I would have in a different part.

(You can see her a very tiny bit here, though of course the scene is focused on Jude Law's Hamlet:
http://www.nytimes.com/video/theater/1247464359186/jude-law-in-hamlet.html )

But Juliet. *sigh*

[lareinenoire]

And I have an odd hang-up about Ophelia, which is that I always want her to be actively trying to communicate (especially with Laertes) - almost as if she has aphasia and nothing can come out but songs and rhymes.

I love that idea! I seem to remember Kate Winslet's Ophelia giving kind of that impression, though not explicitly.

[tempestsarekind]

I should probably watch the Branagh film again at some point: I'm not actually sure I've seen it since high school! I remember really liking Kate Winslet, although I thought the flashbacks to the Hamlet/Ophelia relationship were kind of weird and uncomfortable...