Re: “Like daggers to the ears”

Having seen the Temple theater production of "Hamlet" twice, I think that Mr. Woods' review is off the mark about some of the performances. Mr. Luckey as Hamlet brings out the comedic aspect of the character's wit without undermining the soul-searching in the monologs (which I thought worked wonderfully well addressed to the audience), and Anne Butler as Ophelia creates a through-line for a character who, as a director friend of mine once remarked, is a cipher. Ms. Butler gives Ophelia a desire to break free of the constraints of obedience, a sense of being wronged by Hamlet, and a fullblown madness which is like an eruption of all her conflicting feelings, including the sexual ones. In most productions of "Hamlet" I've seen, Ophelia spars rather playfully with Hamlet as they wait for the play within the play to begin; in this production, Ophelia is still hurt and fearful because of Hamlet's recent outburst of anger at her. Mr. Woods doesn't give enough credit, in my view, to the freshness of these two performances.