Drowning Ophelia

Written by Rachel Luann Strayer and Directed by Robert Seale

November 25-December 4,, 2021
Lower Denton Theatre

Drowning Ophelia

The set of this one-act “dark comedy” is Jane’s bathtub.

She finds it inhabited by a strange, Shakespearean woman, Ophelia. Ophelia delights in singing songs about death and Valentine’s Day, and interrupting Jane’s carefully planned fantasy research dinners with an actor named Edmund.  Jane has a hard time controlling her, especially when her brother Adam appears in memories - memories of a brother Jane would apparently rather forget.

Although Ophelia lives only in Jane’s mind, she exerts, with her tub, a great and terrible pull over Jane’s consciousness. Ophelia won’t be silenced. Much of the play’s drama derives from the slow unfolding of the mystery of their relationship, and the past takes over eventually, enabling Jane and the rest of us have to finally look at what went wrong, and the cause of Jane’s inability to function.

Which begs the question from Jane’s own troubled mind: how do you move on when reconciliation is not an option?
There is always hope. . .