Sun. 8th May, 4 pm
Ophelia, Herb-woman
Written and directed by Maggie Rose｜With Australian actor Elena Pellone｜featuring Gilberta Crispino
Herb-women in the Elizabethan era were expert healers with herbal knowledge. Joan Field is a herb-woman by day and in the afternoon she disguises herself as John and acts with Shakespeare’s company, the King’s Men. As John, she can break the rules of the age that forbade women to go on stage. Joan\John successfully plays a string of famous Shakespeare women, like Juliet, Viola and Caterina, but it’s with Ophelia that she discovers something they share: like Joan, Ophelia lives close to nature. Joan entertains the audience with the story of her adventurous life.
Le donne delle erbe in epoca elisabettiana erano esperte guaritrici dalle conoscenze erboristiche. Joan Field di giorno è una donna delle erbe e di pomeriggio si traveste da John e recita insieme ai King’s Men, la compagnia di Shakespeare. Nei panni di John, può infrangere le regole di allora che proibivano alle donne di calcare le scene. Interpreta con successo eroine famose come Giulietta, Viola e Caterina, ma è con Ophelia che scopre un lato che le accomuna: anche Ophelia vive vicina alla natura. Joan intrattiene il pubblico con la storia della sua vita avventurosa.
Elena Pellone
Actor, Director
Elena Pellone is an international actor and director who is collaborating artist with Persona Theatre company. She appeared as Lear, directed by Avra Sidropoulou and Eric Nicholson in 2017. She had her West End debut in the world premiere of Pheadra I, written and directed by Avra Sidropoulou. Elena is currently voicing the animated story of Yellow Wallpaper for Persona Theatre Company.
Elena is a graduate of Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Shakespeare), the University of Melbourne, has an MA from Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, where she is currently completing her PhD on Directorless Shakespeare, co-creating Shakespeare productions in UK, Italy and Germany, in which she performed Richard in Richard II, Beatrice and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. Elena is the Artistic Facilitator of the Venice Shakespeare Company and Anərkē Shakespeare. She was Nerissa in the historic Merchant of Venice in the Venetian Jewish Ghetto, 2016 and appeared as Hecuba in Trojan Women, Stratford-upon-Avon, 2020. Elena has recently devised and performed the Rape of Lucrece for the inauguration of the Verona Shakespeare Fringe Festival, 2021, and is due to direct and perform in Othello in Venice, 2022.
Elena has taught at the University Birmingham, Queen Mary UL, Mary Baldwin University, Boston University (London), and the University of Würzburg, given papers and directed seminars in Rome, London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Guildford, Warwick, Leeds, Gdansk, Paris, Verona and Venice, published in Shakespeare Survey, Skenè, Cahiers Élisabéthains, Otherness and Shakespeare.