#btw mariah gale's portrayal of ophelia in this scene is CRAZY good i'm so.. hhhhhghgwgm

[aq2003]

the background piano music ends abruptly on a discordant note when hamlet says his father had died in the past two hours, which is when the idea gets put forward that his own perception of time/events might not be totally reliable

#btw mariah gale's portrayal of ophelia in this scene is CRAZY good i'm so.. hhhhhghgwgm #ik a couple of more modern productions try to portray ophelia w more agency and force behind what she does #which is good! but mariah gale's portrayal is my favorite in terms of what was originally intended for the character #ie how devastated she is at seeing someone she loves spiral further and further downwards #the uncomfortable smiles she has in this scene specifically cuz on one hand. Hamlet why are you saying these things. die #on the other hand she can see that he's in better spirits overall and isn't that better than how he was earlier? (it's not) #how she is driven mad bc everybody in her life either dies or leaves her and nobody can acknowledge that injustice #i get the impression that this ophelia wasn't allowed to show her anger and her frustration towards everyone around her #she was raised to act in a certain specific way to make her father (and her brother) look good. without a regard for her personhood #so it makes sense that if hamlet was so sweet w her pre-his-father's-death and that he changed so drastically in front of her #that it kind of basically brings her down with him too #hamlet