{"id":364909,"date":"2025-02-25T09:26:34","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T14:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/?p=364909"},"modified":"2025-02-25T09:26:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T14:26:34","slug":"lauren-m-gunderson-on-unmasking-the-women-in-hamlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/2025\/02\/25\/lauren-m-gunderson-on-unmasking-the-women-in-hamlet\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren M. Gunderson on unmasking the women in ‘Hamlet’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chances are that if you spend time at the Folger Shakespeare Library, you know that there is a play called Hamlet <\/em>that was written by William Shakespeare more than 400 years ago.<\/p>\n

But even those with the most rudimentary knowledge of Shakespeare\u2019s masterpiece will appreciate Playwright Lauren M. Gunderson\u2019s latest girl-power drama, A Room in the Castle<\/em>, a re-examination of Hamlet <\/em>that puts the women front and center.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Playwright Lauren M. Gunderson. Photo courtesy of Folger Theatre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whereas Shakespeare\u2019s tragedy focuses on Hamlet\u2019s descent into madness after his father, the King of Demark, is murdered, A Room in the Castle<\/em> asks: What if things had been different? Specifically for the women in the play \u2014 all two of them. What if the ending didn\u2019t have to be all tragedy for Ophelia, Hamlet\u2019s doomed sweetheart, and his regal mother, Gertrude?<\/p>\n

Opening at Folger Theatre on March 4, A Room in the Castle<\/em> is a co-production with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, which commissioned Gunderson to write a script focused on a Shakespearean character of her choosing. \u201cOphelia was a mystery to me so I started looking at her,\u201d Gunderson told DC Theater Arts in a recent Zoom interview. \u201cI realized that Shakespeare put all these secret doors into the play that you can open and find a whole other version of Ophelia. She is a creative, she is a romantic, she\u2019s smart, she\u2019s a little weird and quirky. She\u2019s not this perfect ing\u00e9nue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunderson is one of the country\u2019s most prolific and frequently produced playwrights. Her plays, including Ada and the Engine<\/em> and The Revolutionists,<\/em> frequently feature female historical figures, offering a new perspective on lives that were discounted due to gender.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Hamlet<\/em>, we don\u2019t see the women in a private space,\u201d Gunderson says. \u201cWe only see the mask of the characters they have to be in public. So what happens when they are alone in their rooms?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunderson\u2019s answer to that question became a briskly-paced, comedic one-act in which the men remain in the shadows. The play features just three characters: Ophelia, Gertrude, and a maid named Anna who acts as Ophelia\u2019s confidante and cheerleader. Adding the character of Anna underscores how isolated Ophelia has been in Hamlet and asks how things may have been different if she had had a confidante in the castle.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Oneika Phillips as Queen Gertrude, Sabrina Lynne Sawyer as Ophelia, and Burgess Byrd as Anna in the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company production of Lauren M. Gunderson\u2019s \u2018A Room in the Castle,\u2019 directed by Kaja Dunn and co-produced with Folger Theatre. Photo by Mikki Schaffner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Limiting the cast to three characters allowed Gunderson to give each woman a depth of character, staying true to Shakespeare\u2019s portrayal of Ophelia and Gertrude while mining the characters’ own strengths and motivations. Ophelia is a singer\/songwriter on the cusp of womanhood. \u201cOphelia\u2019s womanliness is weaponized so quickly against her in Shakespeare\u2019s play that we don\u2019t see the beauty and humor of that shift from girl to woman,\u201d Gunderson observes. And Anna is a fierce protector who is able to hold her own with the Queen and \u201cfind great agency from a place of subservience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunderson\u2019s interpretation of Queen Gertrude takes issue with the character\u2019s historical reputation as a manipulative woman who married her dead husband\u2019s brother for selfish reasons. \u201cHamlet<\/em> was written from her son\u2019s perspective, and of course, Hamlet sees the worst version of his mother,\u201d Gunderson says. \u201cBut there is no way that her marriage was a lust-driven choice. That was fully about survival and about protecting herself and her son. She is throwing herself on the bomb to save them for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sabrina Lynne Sawyer as Ophelia, Burgess Byrd as Anna, and Oneika Phillips as Queen Gertrude in the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company production of Lauren M. Gunderson\u2019s \u2018A Room in the Castle,\u2019 directed by Kaja Dunn and co-produced with Folger Theatre. Photo by Mikki Schaffner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When asked what Gunderson looks for in choosing new projects, she has a quick answer: Dream and drive. \u201cWhat makes a good main character is big desire, big want, lots of internal conflict,\u201d she says. \u201cAlso characters have to have room to grow. Having that journey from the beginning of a play to the end is imperative. I\u2019m not interested in people who don\u2019t change because why tell that story? Good stories come from the moment when they are forced to or choose to reckon with themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamlet <\/em>famously ends in a bloodbath with nearly every character in the play dying. Newly empowered through Gunderson\u2019s script, will Gertrude and Ophelia circumvent their tragic fates?<\/p>\n

No spoilers here, but Gunderson takes issue with the idea that tragedy is always the highest form of art as it was seen in Shakespeare\u2019s time. \u201cA lot of my work is about doing the harder, braver thing: finding a way out. My favorite stories are not about the consequences of actions but the consequences of resilience and survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunderson is grateful for programs like Folger Theatre\u2019s Reading Room Festival<\/a>, where A Room in the Castle<\/em> had its first staged reading in 2023, citing the importance of being able to mount plays quickly in response to rapidly changing events in the country. A self-described activist playwright, Gunderson notes that \u201cwe will always be in need of plays like this one or like Cabaret <\/em>which are about desperate moments in time and how people find their way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunderson hopes that her play will be seen as not \u201cjust\u201d a play for women but rather a universal story of bravery and redemption that just happens to have a female protagonist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to show the hard work of survival,\u201d Gunderson adds. \u201cThe hard work of maybe not all of us get out but the ones who do, that is a hard hope that we have won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Running Time: Approximately 85 minutes with no intermission.<\/p>\n

A Room in the Castle<\/em><\/strong><\/a> plays May 4 through April 6, 2025, at the Folger Theatre in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capital Street, SE, in Washington, DC. Tickets range from $20-$84 and are available online <\/a><\/strong>or by calling the box office at (202) 544-7077.<\/p>\n

A Room in the Castle<\/strong><\/em>
\nby Lauren M. Gunderson
\nDirected by Kaja Dunn
\nCo-produced with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:<\/strong>
\nFolger Theatre to premiere Lauren Gunderson\u2019s \u2018A Room in the Castle\u2019 <\/a><\/strong>(news story January 30, 2025)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an exclusive interview, the playwright previews her latest girl-power drama, ‘A Room in the Castle,’ on stage at Folger Theatre March 4 to April 6. By NICOLE HERTVIK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":364913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[55],"class_list":{"0":"post-364909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews","8":"tag-folger-theatre"},"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nLauren M. 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