Ophelia's Refrain

What I liked

There is only one character in this play, from childhood trauma to self-created, self-created mature woman. There are about twenty characters in this play: the 11-year-old innocent daughter, her Norwegian mother, her Iranian father, the street kid at 14 in Seattle, and her 2 teenaged girlfriends, the self-made actress at 16, various boyfriends, a therapist (or two?), Hamlet’s Ophelia, the acid-head 20-something (in Peru?), her lover in NYC, husband #1, husband #2, the yoga student, the mature actress auditioning, a blond dancer in a Black ensemble, the yoga teacher, … talented, resurrected Sheila-Joon (meaning “essence”) in the present, smiling on stage. All in less than one hour.

Somehow, she dramatizes her various reinventions merely with changes in voice and body language, and by taking off or adding to different layers of a simple but ingenious white costume. Baby doll PJ top as the sexually violated innocent girl; white and blue shawl for her Iranian culture and womanhood, bare midriff middle for the belly dancer, white crop top with flowing Zen pants for the Yogi, and white tailored blouse for the career sophisticate, etc. . . . The set was similarly simple and multi-valent; with ever-present flowers also playing various roles. As for tone, it could be flighty and flirty, flippant, or sardonically serious, or mordant mirth, and finally transcendent. Now I have run out of time and space to properly applaud the creative Directing; music from blues to pop to hip hop; and stunning use of overhead screens for projected images of white and black swirls of mixed race, and of the at first floating into madness, then damned and drowning Ophelia, ultimately transforming into the reborn and triumphant Sheilia.

What I didn't like

When Ms Azim after the conclusion invited audience members to come on-stage and dance with her, there was a bit of an awkward moment I thought. I felt a bit shy and perhaps others did too. Yet eventually some friends in the audience were dancing w Sheila-Joon: a sort of coming out party, of a woman who had therapized herself with this very personal play … into Success!

My overall impression

My husband and I saw, heard, inhaled, experienced “Ophelia’s Refrain” on Monday night, June 23rd. It is an intensely autobiographical play/ one-woman show that will stay with us for a very long time: written by Sheila-Joon Azim; acted, sung, cried, mimed, and danced by Sheila-Joon Azim.