Having
a Stab at Opheila
13
June 2003
By LINDA HERRICK arts editor
There
should be a health warning attached to the role of Ophelia in
Michael Hurst's charged-up production of Hamlet at the Maidment
Theatre. Poor Ophelia, rejected and abused by her lover, and confused
by the machinations of her father Polonius, hurtles into a mad
scene which involves horrific self-mutilation; the instrument
a large pair of scissors. The scene is genuinely upsetting and
unsettling.
"Yes,
I slashed myself last night," says Anna Hewlett, who plays
Ophelia, rubbing her arms and examining the rainbow of bruises
and cuts. "Some nights I come off the mad scene crying. It's
the blood and the scissors. Gripping those scissors some nights
gives me the shakes. It's emotionally draining."
It's
not just the scissors and the insanity. The earlier nunnery scene,
when Hurst, who plays Hamlet as well as directing, grabs Ophelia
and orders her out of the secular world, is gripping, literally.
Hence the bruises. "I bruise easily," says Hewlett,
"but you've got to be hardcore in this play."
If
you haven't caught this production of Hamlet, time is running
out, with the Maidment season ending tomorrow night. Word has
it that it has been attracting return audiences, a rare phenomenon
in the often apathetic Auckland theatre scene.
With
an almost uniformly excellent cast and a production which has
evolved through its three-week run, this sleek, dark Hamlet seems
"shockingly new", said Herald critic Peter Calder, who
thought Hewlett's Ophelia "heart-rending . . . excellent".
Hewlett,
27, says she never knows exactly what's going to happen onstage
each night. "Last night was such a good show. We really connected
with the audience. I came offstage buzzing. Every night I go on
is different. Michael is so spontaneous and so 'in the moment'.
We are not robots, you don't press the 'play' button and go on
stage. You have to be in the moment and go with it."
The
six school matinees have been "like rock concerts",
she laughs. "The kids are loving it, clapping at the end
of random scenes, egging each other on. I think they can relate
to it: the problems with the parents, the love thing, the music
. . . "
Hewlett
has worked with Hurst just once before--last year--coming late
into the Auckland Theatre Company's production of The Rocky Horror
Show to replace Sophia Hawthorne's Janet, before touring the show
to Wellington.
"I
had never read Hamlet, I'd just seen two of the films, with Mel
Gibson and Kenneth Branagh. Michael doesn't audition, he casts
by seeing qualities in people and he said, 'I'm probably doing
Hamlet next year. Would you like to be Ophelia?' I didn't believe
him. Some months later I was at a party and I asked him, and he
was like, 'Yeah, of course'."
It's
hard to believe that this self-assured woman was "very shy"
at school when she grew up in Kerikeri. But she did indulge in
a sort of movie-world fantasy.
"I
used to love watching the old movies, the Grace Kelly thing, the
glamour thing. I was very quiet, very shy, at school; a bit silly,
then I started doing speech and drama classes and came out of
my shell.
"But
I was always the type of person who hated photos and would pull
faces at the camera, put a mask on. Acting--it's all pretence.
Being shy and being on stage, it doesn't make sense, does it?
But I love it, all the different characters. I'd like to be known
as versatile--and busy."
Since
graduating from Toi Whakaari Drama School in Wellington at the
end of 1999, Hewlett has worked as steadily as most young actors
can in New Zealand. In 2000 Miranda Harcourt directed her in Much
Ado About Nothing at Downstage in Wellington, and she had a role
as one of the witches in Macbeth in the Centrepoint in Palmerston
North. Since moving to Auckland two years ago she's been able
to solidify, with roles in ATC productions of Hair and Noises
Off. The SiLo theatre has also been a key venue for some of Hewlett's
work, with this reviewer noting of her role in last October's
Restless Ecstasy trilogy that her work seemed "effortless".
She recently played Vivian (the victim) to Jennifer Ward-Lealand's
Marlene.
She
giggles as she recalls her statutory foray into Shortland Street.
"I was Dr Lucy Rhodes," she laughs, "one of the
cows who came in, stirred things up, then left."
She
positively honks at the query about work on The Lord of the Rings
in 2001 appearing on her CV. "I was overseas for four months
and when I got back to Wellington I was asked to check out The
Lord of the Rings. I'm a bit embarrassed to have that on my CV--it
was great fun but I was only there for the last two weeks of shooting.
I'm a 'Gondorian refugee' in the last film. I'll be like, 'Look,
mum, that's me'."
In
fact, it's only lately that her parents have realised her dreams
of being an actor were more than "just a phase".
"It
wasn't until they came to see me act in my first year at drama
school that they realised, 'Aaah, so this is what she wants to
do'. It took them that long. I think they thought it was just
a phase, not that I would try to make a living out of it."
Of
course, they've been to see Hamlet--her father's first Shakespeare--and
"loved it", she says.
There'll
doubtless be a big wrap party for the Hamlet team tomorrow night,
but Hewlett has work commitments the next day, shooting a short
film directed by Belinda Schmidt. She's hooking up with Hurst
again for an Auckland Festival pantomime which remains a semi-secret
and involves "rarking up the kids". One suspects, from
the twinkle in her eye, that after the emotional battering of
Ophelia, Hewlett will rather enjoy a spot of silliness again.
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2003, New Zealand Herald |