Shakespeare for Teachers: 90 min Workshop Taster

Shakespeare for Teachers: 90 min Workshop Taster ‘No Room for Love’; Ophelia’s Journey ‘No Room for Love’; Ophelia’s Journey Objectives: h To suppor...
Author: Sheila York
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Shakespeare for Teachers: 90 min Workshop Taster ‘No Room for Love’; Ophelia’s Journey

‘No Room for Love’; Ophelia’s Journey Objectives: h To support adolescent learners in making creative connections between their own understandings of love and relationships and Ophelia and her journey in the play h To explore the iconic status of Ophelia in art and Western culture – who does she represent and why is her after-life so compelling?

Warm up: ‘Individual V the Team’ – Adapted from a game found ‘In Drama Games’, 2010, by Chris Johnston. All participants, apart from one volunteer form a line (or a circle), facing the same way. They must be standing with shoulders touching. The volunteer stands facing them or in the middle of the circle. An envelope* is given to one of the participants in the line. This is then passed between them using their hands behind their backs. The player observing has to work out where the letter is at any one time and should call out ‘stop’ at any time. When this happens the letter must stop being passed. The player calls out the name of the person s/he thinks is holding the object. If they are right, the person holding the envelope takes a line from inside and reads it out loud before changing places. The game starts over.

h To understand increasingly challenging texts through making inferences and referring to evidence in the text h To understand how the work of the dramatist is communicated effectively through performance and how alternative staging allows for different interpretations of a play.

Acitivity 2: ‘Embodied Poetry’ Invite two participants into the circle. Using ideas from the group those on the outside of the circle observing are invited one at a time to sculpt the two volunteers into an image of how you imagine the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia. There must be no physical contact, and therefore focus on the use of space and levels, gesture, body language and eye contact should be used to communicate their relationship. Encourage the quick succession of idea into action. The aim being, to achieve a state of ‘flow’ between one sculpted response and the next. Remind students to use the evidence from the text to inform and shape their responses.

* Inside the envelope are lines taken from Hamlet’s love letter to Ophelia.

E.g. Dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers – could translate into Hamlet’s eyes and head being lowered and so the distance between himself and Ophelia extended. He might even be turned slightly away.

‘Doubt thou the stars are fire / Doubt that the sun doth move / Doubt truth to be a liar but never doubt I love / O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers / I have not art to reckon my groans: but that I love thee best / O most best, believe it / Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet.’

Acitivity 3: ‘The Art of Ophelia’

Acitivity 1: ‘Gather and surmise’ Envelopes containing the complete love letter (see Appendix 1) are presented to groups of 4 or 5. The love letter is from Hamlet for Ophelia. The group should treat the text as evidence with which to respond to the question: Does Hamlet really love Ophelia? They are encouraged to draw on their own experiences and understandings of young love. How will Ophelia read this letter, what will she read in to it? As a whole group open up the discussion and consider together whether they would trust Hamlet’s declaration of love based on his letter.

Participants are re-organised to make a new group of 4. This time they are given a set of images, representing Ophelia in art. Each group is asked to imagine Ophelia based on these images. The group consider how she looks and what she might be like; why Hamlet might be attracted to in her. The discussion generated here should be used to make links across the centuries and to build an image of Ophelia, which is recognisable to young people (participants) and their worlds. Below are some examples of images of Ophelia that you might choose to include. However the choice is extensive and should be selected according to context and learning foci. •  John William Waterhouse (1894) •  John Everett Millais (1852)

•  Alexandre Cabanel (1883) Based on the images selected and presented ask participants to agree on three questions that they would want to ask Ophelia if they had the opportunity e.g. to what extent does the artist John William Waterhouse capture your true self?

Acitivity 4: ‘Remember Me’ In pairs or by yourself decide on and make a ‘love token’* from the paper given. This is to serve as a ‘remembrance’ of the love between Hamlet and Ophelia. Participants are asked to create a large ‘circle of love’ by placing their drawing / object on the floor (the circle will become the performance space whereby they will observe the Teacher in Role as Ophelia). *These are tokens given by Hamlet or kept by Ophelia as tokens and remembrances of their love.

Acitivity 5: ‘What am I to do?’ Class watch as Teacher-in-Role (TIR) as Ophelia steps into the circle clutching her memory box. She wears a necklace, which she reveals from underneath her top. She begins by saying to the group: “What am I to do”. In what follows the role keeps retuning to the letter and the other tokens, which her father has instructed her must be returned to Hamlet. The box is an important object of attention for the exercise. She is distracted and rambling. The back-story is mixed with text (Appendix 2). In observing the role participants are required to pick up the story and the dilemma Ophelia is in. Above all she is torn between her love and duty to her father and brother and her passion for Hamlet. She is also confused as to who loves her and why – father? Brother? Lover? The role provides the following information and clues: 1.  She has known Hamlet all his life, but they have both changed – Hamlet University, darker more complex. Moody. Only Horatio understands him. She has withdrawn from court, loves nature and her father and brother. 2.  She has always loved him but did not dare think of a relationship because of social status. Love is not possible between and Prince and someone like me. 3.  More recently Hamlet has been acting strange towards her and this scares her. 4.  Her father thinks he is mad with love but she is not sure, empathises with Hamlet because her own mother died and he has no family he can turn to. She had her father and brother. 5.  Brother and father have both warned that Hamlet is only interested in sex but she also has a huge attraction for Hamlet 6.  Father has ordered her not to see Hamlet and to return his letters. She will of course because she is a loyal daughter and owes her father and brother everything. 7.  Now her father and the King want her to test Hamlet’s love so that they can see if he is madly in love or just mad.

8.  She doesn’t want to betray Hamlet or hurt him but she also does not know whether he is in love with her. Is this also a test of his love for her? The role ends by inviting the participants to agree on which, if any, of the tokens she should keep from her ‘circle of love’ and which she must return on her father’s orders.

Acitivity 6: ‘Collective Ophelia’ Participants form groups of 4 or 5 to explore some key ‘offstage’ moments. Based on what they know / imagine, the group agree on Ophelia’s attitude and what she might say and not say. The collective voice can take on a range of responses so show conflict or uncertainty. Together they improvise a response with the TiR. In each case the group decide where she is and what she is doing: Group 1: Ophelia TiR as Laertes. How does Ophelia respond to her brother’s warning that Hamlet’s affections are not lasting and that she must resist her feelings for him. Group 2: Ophelia TiR as Polonius. How does Ophelia respond to her father’s advice that she must refuse all gifts and deny any request by Hamlet for them to meet. Group 3: Ophelia What is Ophelia’s state of mind as she prepares to meet Hamlet? Group create a moving montage of her thoughts, feelings, voices, memories, fears and perform it around TiR as Ophelia, or agree some other use of space for the performance (as a journey?).

Activity 7: ‘Ophelia’s Dilemma’ Act 3, Scene 1: The ‘Nunnery Scene’ This is one of the play’s most charged and emotional encounters. We have heard an abridged account from Ophelia’s prior to this scene of how Hamlet has appeared before her ‘with his doublet all unbraced’ and exhibiting all the signs of a maddened, unrequited lover; we know that Ophelia says she has, as her father instructed, rejected Hamlet’s letters and his requests to meet. Now we see the two together onstage. Participants are presented with three reflective questions: 1.  What is Ophelia’s dilemma (she has been ‘loosed’ to Hamlet, that is, set up as bait by her father and Claudius)? 2.  What difference does it makes that Polonius and Claudius are overhearing all of this encounter? 3.  What is the extent of Hamlet’s ‘madness’; the use of props (what are the ‘remembrances’ that Ophelia has ‘longéd long to redeliver’ and what happens to them in the course of the scene?

Participants find a partner and using an edited version of the nunnery scene (Appendix 3) explore the scene in the following ways: •  Reading it back to back; •  As if it is a whispered quarrel in a state room into which the king may walk in at any time •  As a stand up shouting match in the palace orchard where no-one but sheep may hear you; •  With Ophelia constantly still and Hamlet free to move about; reverse; •  Using your ‘love token’ to include as the love poem Ophelia is giving back. In pairs participants improvise five different acts of giving/ reacting and then rehearse with one line each from the poem before showing round circle. This action/reaction must be included in the final presentation. If time, invite 1 or 2 pairs to share their work.

Activity 8: ‘Spectrum of Love’ Ask participants to imagine a line running from one corner of the room to the other. At one end, is the point of strongest agreement at the other the point of strongest disagreement. Students are asked to move and position themselves along the axis, as to the extent to which they agree / disagree with the following statements*. •  ‘In the world where murder holds sway there is no room for love’. •  Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is simply a ‘fashion’ / ‘sweet not lasting’. This activity must first be conducted in silence, without discussion. Once everyone is in place invite participants to share their reasons for positioning themselves in that space with the people closest to them. The facilitator can invite participants to share their findings more widely and from this ask whether anyone wants to move based on what they have just heard. *The statements used here are examples and could be replaced to fit more appropriately to the learning objectives / outcomes.

Appendix 1: Hamlet’s Letter to Ophelia

Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love. O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to reckon my groans: but that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him. Hamlet

Appendix 2: Ophelia (text to inform role) My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced; No hat upon his head; his stockings foul’d, Ungarter’d, and down-gyved to his ankle; Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other; And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors — he comes before me.

He took me by the wrist and held me hard; Then goes he to the length of all his arm; And, with his other hand thus o’er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face As he would draw it. Long stay’d he so; At last, a little shaking of mine arm And thrice his head thus waving up and down, He raised a sigh so piteous and profound As it did seem to shatter all his bulk And end his being: that done, he lets me go: And, with his head over his shoulder turn’d, He seem’d to find his way without his eyes; For out o’ doors he went without their helps, And, to the last, bended their light on me.

Appendix 3: Hamlet: 3.1 (edited) OPHELIA 

My lord, I have remembrances of yours, That I have longéd long to re-deliver: I pray you now receive them.

HAMLET 

No, not I. I never gave you aught.

OPHELIA 

My honoured lord, you know right well you did. And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed As made the things more rich. There, my lord.

HAMLET

Ha, ha! Are you honest?

OPHELIA

My lord?

HAMLET

Are you fair?

OPHELIA

What means your lordship?

HAMLET

I did love you once.

OPHELIA

Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

HAMLET

You should not have believed me; I loved you not.

OPHELIA

I was the more deceived.

HAMLET

Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where’s your father?

OPHELIA

At home, my lord.

HAMLET

Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in’s own house. Farewell.

OPHELIA

O, help him, you sweet heavens!

HAMLET

God has given you one face and you make yourselves another. Go to, I’ll no more on’t, it hath made me mad. To a nunnery go.

OPHELIA

Oh what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!

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