Shakespeare's Three Marys

SHAKESPEARE’S THREE MARYS

By the Dark Lady Players

September 2009

www.darkladyplayers.com

About this production

• This unique production interspersed scenes of the Virgin Mary characters (Juliet, Ophelia and Desdemona) with their parallel characters in the York mystery plays

• The objective was to show how the Shakespearean heroines are parodies of the Virgin Mary

1. Romeo &Juliet: the Annunciation/Nurse’s Scene

Romeo & Juliet; Lady Capulet and Nurse Angelica say it is time for

Juliet to get Mary-ed

Romeo & Juliet; Nurse has referred to Susan(nah), meaning a Lillythe symbol of the annunciation

2. Hamlet; In the York Mystery plays, Mary is sewing in her closet

Joseph addresses Mary(from the York Mystery plays)

Hamlet, an allegory for the sun god Helios, has made Ophelia pregnant

through his light

Pregnant Virgin Mary watches Ophelia, no longer pregnant, holding

her abortive flowers

Ophelia distributes her abortive flowers

Ophelia offers Mary a piece of Rose-mary, to wear with a

difference

Mary and her Lilly ascend to Heaven; In parallel Ophelia is

abut to fall off the tree

Virgin Mary with the Lilly

3. Othello; Desdemona with Othello in the background

Death of Desdemona like a Christ figure

Photos © John Watts