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The Secret Love Life of Ophelia
Hamlet and Ophelia express the infinite variety of their passion in a work which takes the form of an epistolary play in verse. Steven Berkoff's startlingly original drama charts the lovers' story beneath the surface of Shakespeare's play. With a muscularity of language tempered with tenderness, Berkoff's play is shot through with images of courtly love, sexual desire and intimations of future tragedy. The chill of the ending perfectly offsets the preceding violent heat in what is another unique piece of work from the individual talent that is Steven Berkoff.The Secret Love Lifeof Ophelia was first performed at the King's Head Theatre, London, on 25 June 2001.
68 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 6, 2001
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About the author
Steven Berkoff
69 books12 followersSteven Berkoff is an English actor, writer and director.Best known for his performance as General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy, he is typically cast in villanous roles, such as Lt. Col Podovsky in Rambo: First Blood Part II, Victor Maitland in Beverly Hills Cop, and Adolf Hitler in epic mini-series War and Remembrance.
His earliest plays are adaptations of works by Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis (1969); In the Penal Colony (1969); and The Trial (1971); these complex psychological plays are said to be nightmarish and to create a disturbing sense of alienation in their audiences. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote a series of verse plays including: East (1975); Greek (1980); Decadence (1981); West (1983); Sink the Belgrano! (1986); Massage (1997); Sturm und Drang; and The Secret Love Life of Ophelia (2001). East, Greek and West were punk-inspired works about working class London youth based on Oedipus and Beowulf respectively.
Berkoff employs a style of heightened physical theatre known as "total theatre". Drama critic Aleks Sierz describes his Berkoff's dramatic style as "in yer face": "the language is usually filthy, characters talk about unmentionable subjects, take their clothes off, have sex, humiliate each another, experience unpleasant emotions, become suddenly violent. At its best, this kind of theatre is so powerful, so visceral, that it forces audiences to react: either they feel like fleeing the building or they are suddenly convinced that it is the best thing they have ever seen, and want all their friends to see it too. It is the kind of theatre that inspires us to use superlatives, whether in praise or condemnation."
According to Annette Pankratz, in her 2005 Modern Drama review of Steven Berkoff and the Theatre of Self-Performance, by Robert Cross, "Steven Berkoff is one of the major minor contemporary dramatists in Britain and – due to his self-fashioning as a bad boy of British theatre and the ensuing attention of the media – a phenomenon in his own right."
"I'm scared of Steven Berkoff" is a line in the lyrics of "I'm Scared" (1992), by Queen's guitarist Brian May, released on his first solo album Back to the Light (1993). Brian May has declared himself as a great admirer of Berkoff.
The Berkoff Performing Arts Centre was named for him at Alton College, in North East Hampshire on 20 June 2008.
His earliest plays are adaptations of works by Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis (1969); In the Penal Colony (1969); and The Trial (1971); these complex psychological plays are said to be nightmarish and to create a disturbing sense of alienation in their audiences. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote a series of verse plays including: East (1975); Greek (1980); Decadence (1981); West (1983); Sink the Belgrano! (1986); Massage (1997); Sturm und Drang; and The Secret Love Life of Ophelia (2001). East, Greek and West were punk-inspired works about working class London youth based on Oedipus and Beowulf respectively.
Berkoff employs a style of heightened physical theatre known as "total theatre". Drama critic Aleks Sierz describes his Berkoff's dramatic style as "in yer face": "the language is usually filthy, characters talk about unmentionable subjects, take their clothes off, have sex, humiliate each another, experience unpleasant emotions, become suddenly violent. At its best, this kind of theatre is so powerful, so visceral, that it forces audiences to react: either they feel like fleeing the building or they are suddenly convinced that it is the best thing they have ever seen, and want all their friends to see it too. It is the kind of theatre that inspires us to use superlatives, whether in praise or condemnation."
According to Annette Pankratz, in her 2005 Modern Drama review of Steven Berkoff and the Theatre of Self-Performance, by Robert Cross, "Steven Berkoff is one of the major minor contemporary dramatists in Britain and – due to his self-fashioning as a bad boy of British theatre and the ensuing attention of the media – a phenomenon in his own right."
"I'm scared of Steven Berkoff" is a line in the lyrics of "I'm Scared" (1992), by Queen's guitarist Brian May, released on his first solo album Back to the Light (1993). Brian May has declared himself as a great admirer of Berkoff.
The Berkoff Performing Arts Centre was named for him at Alton College, in North East Hampshire on 20 June 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 22, 2011
Have you ever wanted to hear Hamlet and Ophelia's love letters, rife with innuendos to rival D. H. Lawrence, read aloud? You're in luck!
February 27, 2024
interesting ideas but pretty crap execution.
nothing interesting in regards to ophelias character, one dimension as always.
well done steven berkoff you remembered that there is an extended garden metaphor in hamlet, round of applause for you 👍
nothing interesting in regards to ophelias character, one dimension as always.
well done steven berkoff you remembered that there is an extended garden metaphor in hamlet, round of applause for you 👍
March 20, 2013
i've never seen it performed, so i've only really half-read it, i guess ...
i thought it was sexy and clever - if at times inelegant in its attempt to be too elegant. but for me it fell sadly short of developing ophelia's character, really digging in and giving her a surprising perspective. there was a meaty slant to it that works for hamlet-o-philes ('ah, so THAT'S what's happening there' sort of rosencrantzy stuff). but i wanted to be bowled over by how differently i could potentially read and see ophelia, and that didn't happen.
i thought it was sexy and clever - if at times inelegant in its attempt to be too elegant. but for me it fell sadly short of developing ophelia's character, really digging in and giving her a surprising perspective. there was a meaty slant to it that works for hamlet-o-philes ('ah, so THAT'S what's happening there' sort of rosencrantzy stuff). but i wanted to be bowled over by how differently i could potentially read and see ophelia, and that didn't happen.
April 24, 2016
Impressive style reminiscent of Shakespeare's sonnets. Gets a bit tedious in the middle but a nice ending. Not sure how you'd stage this in an interesting way.
April 26, 2017
Sexting old timey style...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews