Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Elizabeth Dillard ©2025  

We all know Hamlet's tragic story.  As the Prince of Denmark plots revenge against his murdering uncle (Claudius), his behavior becomes increasingly erratic and those around him suffer due to his obsession. Probably the most affected by Hamlet's "madness" is his potential wife, Ophelia, daughter of King Claudius's chief counselor (Polonius). The question arises though, can we really blame Hamlet“  I mean, Ophelia's brother and father did warn her that Hamlet's love was not true, right?

Drowning Ophelia is about "desperately looking for love in the wrong ways" according to writer and director JD Cannady. In life, Ophelia obsessed over Hamlet almost as much as he obsessed over his uncle; why should anything be different in the afterlife? UNDER St. Marks Theater is transformed into a portal to purgatory, where you can witness the rockin'ist group of seventeenth-centuryers your ever likely to meet. Sex, drugs, and Rock & roll may be good fun, but even Jim Morrison or Jimi Hendrix would call it quits after 400 years. This is the position we find Ophelia in, because after all, what else is there to do in purgatory but wait for Hamlet's arrival. Cannady expands on the unfinished love story within Hamlet as a way of exploring his "ideas on relationships and what comes after..." 

What comes after in this situation is a very good question; "Ophelia had no understanding of why Hamlet killed her father, Hamlet had no understanding of why Ophelia killed herself, and neither of them had nearly a firm grasp on their relationship with each other". It's a story of "everything will be better in the end", and "where do we go from here?" all in one. It makes one wonder if good-old Bill Shakespeare didn't write himself into a corner when thinking of how to tie Ophelia's story into a pretty bow for Hamlet; or maybe he just figured that down the road, someone would pick up the loose ends and write a Rock-Opera to liberate Ophelia as an entity separate for the Prince, giving her enough "umph to allow her to be the glam rocker she deserves in 2012". Either way, Drowning Ophelia will have you laughing throughout accompanied by an eclectic mix of rock styles and compelling character development; just be sure to tell them Juliet sent you.