This paper investigates how Ophelia was depicted in two adaptations of Hamlet: Ophelia no Shi (The Death of Ophelia, 1926) and Musume Hakkei (The Portraits of Eight Girls, 1932) performed by Takarazuka Revue, and how they inherited the interpretation of her as victim from previous productions in early 20th century Japan. Ophelia no Shi was written by Shiko TSUBOUCHI who translated, directed and even played the title role in 1918 and 1927. Musume Hakkei was a gala revue of ten scenes, where eight historical and fictional girls from across the world play the leading role in eight scenes, plus a prologue and epilogue. The scene of Ophelia was written by Tatsuya KISHIDA, whose work: Mon Paris (1927), is known as the first western-style revue in Japan. Both adaptations appoint Ophelia as the protagonist and focus on the cause of her madness, reinterpreting the story through her eyes. Consequently, the main plot of this tragedy refocused from Hamlet’s revenge to Ophelia’s tragic love. These two adaptations have two features in common in that they reconstruct Hamlet as a tragic love story; by emphasizing the lines implying the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet and by adding Ophelia’s madness induced hallucinations of her father and lover. To facilitate this shift in focus, in Ophelia no Shi, a rumour of their affair is discussed by the maids. On the other hand, although there is no objective view in Musume Hakkei since this scene is performed solo, Ophelia herself calls Hamlet her beloved one. Kishida also described their relationship as lovers. Thus, their relationship is more clearly defined. Additionally, references to class difference, one of the biggest difficulties in their love, are minimalized. These tendencies were also shown in Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare (1807), in some Japanese adaptations, and in some adapted novels of Hamlet for Japanese girls in this period. Furthermore, these two performances at Takarazuka Revue cut the lines in which Ophelia realizes that she has been abandoned by Hamlet, obscuring her responsibility for the end of their romance. Another important alteration is Ophelias’ hallucinations in both adaptations. Especially in Ophelia no Shi, she sees Hamlet murder her father, Polonius as a hallucinatory image in her madness. In Musume Hakkei, she also talks to phantoms of her father and lover, which do not appear on stage, asking the reason why Hamlet killed her father and mentioning her father’s cruel figure after his death. These directions imply that she experiences for herself, saw directly, or was informed in detail of the murder. Thus, these productions portray her as a witness either of murder or of her father’s body, which is not included in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This supplementary scene portraying her as witness was also seen in previous adaptations in the early 20th century Japan including Shiko’s translation which he himself had already directed in 1918. The result of these two alterations was that the pure Ophelia was now portrayed as a poor beautiful victim of love, an interpretation which was common in early 20th century Japan. Therefore, the images of Ophelia in the two Takarazuka Revue adaptations of Hamlet inherited these interpretations from prior adaptations in modern Japan, even though they emphasize the tragic love affair rather than revenge by focusing on and making Ophelia the protagonist.

View full abstract