Red letter day for Berkoff play

Anyone who sees Shakespeare's Hamlet is left wondering about the true nature of the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia.

It is one of the great unsolved mysteries, baffling experts. Now all is to be revealed by theatrical maverick Steven Berkoff in his latest play, The Secret Love Life Of Ophelia, which he is also directing. It will have its premiere at the King's Head Theatre, Islington, next Tuesday

Berkoff said: "In the original play Ophelia is given short shrift. Hamlet would have expressed himself far more persuasively.

"So I started to write an imagined romance in the kind of verse employed by Shakespeare."

Berkoff, 63, has written his play in the form of love letters for his two young actors Freya Bosworth and Martin Hodgson, whom he chose after auditioning numerous performers over two months. They will not be read from lecterns but acted out with a high degree of intensity.

Just how high a degree may be judged from the cast's reaction - some emerged from the rehearsal room wiping away tears.