Greetings from Ashland, Oregon
Mark and I are completing the last of our trips to Ashland. Usually we make two trips a year, but we ended up making an extra to see one of the plays again:
Here are my pocket reviews. Check out ozdachs for longer reviews of some of these plays.
Equivocation: Mark and I made a special trip to Ashland to see this play again. It was even better the second time, with the acting and plot even tauter. William Shagspeare and his company have been commissioned to write the history of The Gunpowder Plot. But the problem is, there is no plot, in both senses of the word. Can one truly speak truth to power, when no one really cares about the truth? Overall, an astonishing performance, with most of the actors effortlessly switching between multiple roles. Special kudos to John Tufts, who switches roles with a turn of his head.
Servant of Two Masters: Commedia dell'arte was originally street theater. The actors would improvise using whatever props were on hand. With this production, OSF gloriously brings this art form to the modern age. The costumes and props were glorious: everything seemingly stolen from other productions past and present. Special kudos to Mark Bedard as Truffuldino. His wandering through the audience begging for food is an improvised masterpiece.
Henry VIII: With this play, I completed the canon. I'd finally seen all 37 plays. This is not a particularly good play and it is performed rather infrequently, but OSF feels like it needs to perform it every 25 years. Vilma Silva as Queen Katherine steals the show, and this production focuses on how the various court machinations affect her.
Particularly inspired was casting a deaf actor, Howie Seago, in this play. At some of the most important scenes in the play, Vilma Silvers both translates Seago's sign language as well as gives her own response. What Shakespeare wrote as a dialog becomes an intensely moving monologue.
The Music Man: An extraordinarily good production. But it was still The Musican Man. I just can't figure out why OSF chose to perform this. I want Oregon Shakespeare Festival to hire the best actors, not the best singer/dancers. I had really high hopes for this production when the overture was performed on a harmonica; perhaps the director had found a way to make this extravaganza into a more intimate affair. But my hopes were soon dashed as every number was choreographed to the hilt.
The one intriguing idea in the production was the use of color. River City, Iowa starts as a drab gray. Even the American flag is gray. As Professor Henry Hill slowly snookers the town, more and more color appears until River City erupts in technicolor.
Don Quixote: Disappointing. As a piece of stage craft, this was amazing; as a piece of story telling, not so. This adaptation seems to have chosen those pieces of the book that could be staged the most extravagantly and imaginatively, rather than those that best provided a coherent plot. Who was the Enchanter? Who or what was Dulcinea?
Paradise Lost: I'm still cogitating on this one.
Much Ado about Nothing: This play is really two plays: the love/hate relationship between Beatrice and Benedict, and the wooing of Claudio and Hero. Act I, which focused on Beatrice (Robynn Rodriguez) and Benedict (David Kelly) sparkled. Their perfect comedic timing and the acidic repartee between them had me howling. The second act, well, I just couldn't care so much for Claudio and Hero. Tony DeBruno did as good a Dogberry as I've seen, but it's still rather boring.
All's Well That Ends Well: Wow. Another of Shakespeare's problem plays. Low-born girl loves high-born boy but he doesn't love her. He is forced to marry her; he flees. She tries to win him back, but why? Armando Durand, who I hated as Don Quixote, sparkles in this production as "all the miscellaneous characters", switching with the change of a prop between roles. Most productions leave you wondering: Will there be love in this marriage? This one leaves no doubt.
Here are my pocket reviews. Check out ozdachs for longer reviews of some of these plays.
Equivocation: Mark and I made a special trip to Ashland to see this play again. It was even better the second time, with the acting and plot even tauter. William Shagspeare and his company have been commissioned to write the history of The Gunpowder Plot. But the problem is, there is no plot, in both senses of the word. Can one truly speak truth to power, when no one really cares about the truth? Overall, an astonishing performance, with most of the actors effortlessly switching between multiple roles. Special kudos to John Tufts, who switches roles with a turn of his head.
Servant of Two Masters: Commedia dell'arte was originally street theater. The actors would improvise using whatever props were on hand. With this production, OSF gloriously brings this art form to the modern age. The costumes and props were glorious: everything seemingly stolen from other productions past and present. Special kudos to Mark Bedard as Truffuldino. His wandering through the audience begging for food is an improvised masterpiece.
Henry VIII: With this play, I completed the canon. I'd finally seen all 37 plays. This is not a particularly good play and it is performed rather infrequently, but OSF feels like it needs to perform it every 25 years. Vilma Silva as Queen Katherine steals the show, and this production focuses on how the various court machinations affect her.
Particularly inspired was casting a deaf actor, Howie Seago, in this play. At some of the most important scenes in the play, Vilma Silvers both translates Seago's sign language as well as gives her own response. What Shakespeare wrote as a dialog becomes an intensely moving monologue.
The Music Man: An extraordinarily good production. But it was still The Musican Man. I just can't figure out why OSF chose to perform this. I want Oregon Shakespeare Festival to hire the best actors, not the best singer/dancers. I had really high hopes for this production when the overture was performed on a harmonica; perhaps the director had found a way to make this extravaganza into a more intimate affair. But my hopes were soon dashed as every number was choreographed to the hilt.
The one intriguing idea in the production was the use of color. River City, Iowa starts as a drab gray. Even the American flag is gray. As Professor Henry Hill slowly snookers the town, more and more color appears until River City erupts in technicolor.
Don Quixote: Disappointing. As a piece of stage craft, this was amazing; as a piece of story telling, not so. This adaptation seems to have chosen those pieces of the book that could be staged the most extravagantly and imaginatively, rather than those that best provided a coherent plot. Who was the Enchanter? Who or what was Dulcinea?
Paradise Lost: I'm still cogitating on this one.
Much Ado about Nothing: This play is really two plays: the love/hate relationship between Beatrice and Benedict, and the wooing of Claudio and Hero. Act I, which focused on Beatrice (Robynn Rodriguez) and Benedict (David Kelly) sparkled. Their perfect comedic timing and the acidic repartee between them had me howling. The second act, well, I just couldn't care so much for Claudio and Hero. Tony DeBruno did as good a Dogberry as I've seen, but it's still rather boring.
All's Well That Ends Well: Wow. Another of Shakespeare's problem plays. Low-born girl loves high-born boy but he doesn't love her. He is forced to marry her; he flees. She tries to win him back, but why? Armando Durand, who I hated as Don Quixote, sparkles in this production as "all the miscellaneous characters", switching with the change of a prop between roles. Most productions leave you wondering: Will there be love in this marriage? This one leaves no doubt.