Ana Mazzei and Regina Parra’s Ofelia @ Americas Society

Ana Mazzei and Regina Parra’s Ophelia is based on the homonym character of Shakespeare’s Hamlet who is supposed to be mad and drowns in a river. During a reading of the play, Parra isolated Ophelia’s lines and identified a constantly submissive posture, of someone who waits to receive commands from others—always a male—and that is perhaps why she goes mad or is perceived as crazy.

In part, Ophelia’s attitude and destiny are transposed and questioned in the performance. Some of the character’s lines were written on posters painted by Parra and carried by nine women. These are ambiguous lines of resistance, protest, alienation, and submission. The gesture of carrying a sign or a flag evokes the context of a demonstration, and the design of their support by Mazzei reinforces this posture of women’s struggles and resistance.