“Behfarmaheen (If You Please)” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Behfarmaheen (If You Please)

Created and performed by Barzin Akhavan
Directed by Desdemona Chiang 

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival July 31 – September 15, 2024

Behfarmaheen Masthead

Behfarmaheen Masthead, OSF design by Krzysztof Bednarski

Author and Performer Barzin Akhavan starts the story of his schizophrenic but also blended American/Persian life with a long dialog in Farsi. He explains in the after-show talkback that the opening mimics his and his family’s feelings of not understanding during their first days/months/years in the United States. The scene works and he didn’t really need to explain his intent, but his desire that we UNDERSTAND is both tangible and touching.

The feeling of wanting to share, explain, and celebrate runs throughout the one-act show. Behfarmaheen, like the other one-person shows at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this year, is a very personable, very moving, very revelatory treat.

He helps the audience share the feeling of foreignness in two especially noteworthy scenes. In one he teaches the us how to pronounce the play’s name, Behfarmaheen. We are learning the meaning and how to say this foreign Farsi word, and that process helps us experience some of what he and his family went through.

Similarly, to let us join in a celebration Barzin teaches us how to dance like his Persian family. It was quick, eye-opening, and fun.

Barzin Akhavan

Barzin Akhavan. Photo by Jenny Graham.

Barzin was four in 1980 when his family moved to the US from his birth country Germany. They were already refugees from the Iran and moving, trying to put down roots, and trying to figure out the culture is obviously THE focus of his formative years. But, wait, there’s more.

We see and feel him and his family deal with the American culture, strive to understand, and still be an outsider. But there are scenes that focus on him becoming Homecoming King of his high school and a passing mention of how he was student body president. These aren’t positions of an interloper, at least not in my experience.

Well, maybe. Because his mother and father, especially his father, take some time comprehending who their son is. To the present day.

The dichotomy between achieving objective success and feeling seen and understood enriches the show from scene to scene. Barzin wants us to see how we feel and react isn’t dependent on the culture we grew up in… except, very pointedly, when it does affect how we view our lives and what’s going on.

I was intrigued with the details of Barzin’s life. From being the district winner of the Daughters of the American Revolution high school essay contest to wrestling on stage naked in a political/emotional comedy sketch in front of his unprepared father, the man has breadth and amazing stories. I loved hearing all about him and having his basically positive perspective seep out throughout the show.

I confess that some of his approach confused me. He is focused on 1980 with all the important events in the world that happened that year and has a storyboard in the lobby before the show that showcased Iran-Iraq war, John Lenon assignation, the exiled Shah dying in Egypt, more Iranian politics, Richard Pryor burning himself while freebasing, the “Miracle on Ice” at the winter Olympics, and more. Then during the performance Barzin runs a game show where two real audience members compete for prizes while they answer up to six questions about the storyboard.

Barzin Akhavan in Behfarmeheen

Barzin Akhavan hosting the game show in Behfarmeheen. Photo by Jenny Graham.

Huh?

I get that Barzin’s coming to America in 1980 fit in with the other important world events, but, but, but… the events are not intrinsically part of any scene in the show. The turmoil in Iran most likely forced his family to emigrate and eventually immigrate to the US, but I don’t recall that being stated? And, I need an explanation of why he selected certain events. And, the game show was not exciting or fun.

The best I can figure out is that Barzin really wanted people to focus on the 1980 events and offering a prize for remembering the most facts made some of us concentrate on the high/low points of the year. I would weave some of the stories into a scene or two or else I’d leave out the storyboard and game show.

Barzin Akhavan during rehearsal

Barzin Akhavan. Photo by Jenny Graham.

The other distraction I ran into was the breaking of chronological order. I felt I was seeing progression and better understanding of life, college and acting were coming along. Then we were back in high school or before.

I didn’t know when I saw the show that many moments are adlibbed. He mentioned that format in the talkback. Whenever the lights come on and show the audience, Barzin is not on script. Apparently, there is a phrase or hand gesture that lets the stage manager know that the scene is over, but there is not a fixed story.

I assume Barzin is traveling down some activity, audience mood, or something-induced memory which he translates into a scene. Maybe the chronological location of the scene is not important and that’s why the show goes back and forth throughout his life. And, I realize that life and its revelations are not necessarily well ordered. Still, I would appreciate a deliberate unveiling of the overall story that the improv structure does not support.

Fortunately, overall, this is another must-see show featuring a man whose work I’ve long enjoyed. And, I need to acknowledge he must have incredible guts to put so any sides of him on stage for us.

Thank you, Barzin for sharing, showing, and letting us in. And, thank you OSF for supporting Barzin and the other performers this year that gave us such intimate moments in the Thomas.

Behfarmaheen is definitely worth seeing. A happy Play Rating: 4 out of 5 Syntaxes event!

Posted in osf, plays | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Coriolanus” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Coriolanus

By William Shakespeare
in a modern verse translation by Sean San José
Directed by Rosa Joshi

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare Fetival  July 23 – October 13, 2024

Coriolanus Masthead

Coriolanus Masthead. Design by Krzysztof Bednarski.

From start to finish this production of Coriolanus is estranging without approachable characters, involving movement, or interesting text. The show fails to bring any real life to the stage.

Coriolanus is a war hero who is headed to political power when his elitism causes the lower classes to block his assent. He joins an enemy city in attacking his home, stops when his mother appeals to him, and then is killed as a traitor when he goes back to his adopted city.

The play is often referred to as a problem play that isn’t produced often. I couldn’t understand that characterization when I saw OSF’s 2008 superb interpretation that spoke to the Presidential election contest between army hero John McCain and Barak Obama. Coriolanus in that presentation was a real, conflicted, flawed person who clearly fit the definition tragic hero. (See my review.)

Unfortunately, this election year’s Coriolanus (Jessika D. Williams) is a testosterone-driven, stuck-up jerk with weird onstage movements. Coriolanus, like all the other characters, has no subtlety and there is no reason to sympathize with anything he does or gets done to him.

The underclass that insults Coriolanus are equally unlikable. They are a socialist rabble that shout without nuance or basic thinking. Slogans R Us chanters with unhinged movements make me want to giggle (or leave), not sympathize with their cause.

The other nobles and Coriolanus’ family share the traits of inexplicable movements and in-your-face boring personalities. Lines are delivered without delicacy or variation. It felt like everyone’s goal was to get to the end of the play.

All the characters and staging suffer from a simplistic, rushed, over-the-top feel. I guess director Rosa Joshi guided everyone and everything to this unsatisfactory level. Ugh.

Some aspects of the evening deserve special note. The very last scene when the mob cuts open bags of red corn and dumps them on the stage, possibly mimicking Coriolanus’s just-spilled blood, got me to audibly guffaw. It was too, too much.

The other notable tick is the chronic moving of boxes around the stage by the cast. Stagehands apparently cost too much so the actors have to do it? But, more importantly, none of us figured out why the boxes were moving around.

Coriolanus Set

Coriolanus set before Act I

This production uses an exclusively female or non-binary cast, a specialty of the Upstart Crows with whom the show is produced in association. I have seen and loved other Upstart Crows productions and appreciate that they give non-CIS males a chance to star in male-role dominated Shakespeare. The group purposely does not feminize the male roles, but lets women and non-binary actors deliver the characters as written.

But, for this production I felt that most of the cast was too stereotypically male. I mentioned the testosterone level earlier, and I felt throughout that the butchness was being thrown in my face. The actors on stage had the dial on 10 almost all the time.

The other intentional uniqueness of this production was that it was a “modern verse translation” produced in association with Play On Shakespeare.  This is the first Play On show I’ve seen, so I don’t know if all the Play On works take eloquent speeches and dumb them down to the fifth-grade level. But, the words spoken in this production were simple, never uplifting, basic, basic modern English. I may not need old fashion words, but I miss the feeling of language artistry.

I admit that we saw the first preview, so technically it is not fair to call this a review of the production. However, the problems we saw weren’t simple flubbed lines or unsure blocking. I don’t think the flaws in this Coriolanus can be solved with director’s notes or changes, and, in fact, a friend who saw a later show had a similarly low opinion.

This was a very disappointing evening of theater. It sadly validates the statement that Coriolanus is a seldom-produced problem play.

Rating 1 out of 5 Syntaxes

 

Posted in osf, plays | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

“Much Ado About Nothing” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Miriam A. Laube

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare Fetival  May 16 – July 19, 2024

Amy Kim Waschke and John Tufts, with Al Espinosa, Mark Murphey, Uma Paranjpe, and Cedric Lamar. Photo by Jenny Graham.

Amy Kim Waschke and John Tufts, with Al Espinosa, Mark Murphey, Uma Paranjpe, and Cedric Lamar. Photo by Jenny Graham.

This summer’s Much Ado About Nothing breaks out of the simple Shakespeare comedy mode and delivers a real story with real characters.

I have very different expectations for Shakespeare’s comedies than I do for his tragedies and other classifications. The comedies too often are very pleasant entertainment. That’s it. And OSF’s Much Ado does a magnificent job of entertaining. But this production is more. The acting is careful and clear, the costumes rich, the set fun, and every other craft is spot on, too.

The comedic activities affect real people on stage and they don’t just jump around and smile. Under the direction of Miriam Laube even Dogberry has more than a buffoon one-note personality (… and we saw Alex Purcell in the role and he’s apparently the understudy’s understudy).

Our established couple Beatrice (Amy Kim Waschke) and Benedick (John Tufts) are solid, fun, and react appropriately to each other. Their scenes are extraordinary in the action but also visually.

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing Cast members. Photo by Jenny Graham.

 I loved hearing Conrade (Eddie Lopez) launch into a song that felt real. I felt Father Verges’ (Mark Murphey) moral judgements. Well, everyone on stage added their own individualism to the events and there wasn’t just the mass of group emotion that too often appears in the comedies.

Miriam also reportedly wrote the songs that accompanied Shakespeare’s text, and they were powerful additions, especially at the end when Hero (Ava Mingo) sang and planted doubt in our minds about how happy a marriage Claudio (Bradley James Tejeda) could expect.

Yes, the standout character development to me was Hero’s reactions to being unjustly disbelieved and shunned because of the malicious “Nothing” that Don John (Christian Denzel Bufford) unleashed. We have wished at other productions of Much Ado that Hero would stand up for herself. There might be a note somewhere that this was a “problem” comedy, but there seemed to be happiness everywhere at the end.

Sheila Tousey, Ava Mingo, and Uma Paranjpe. Photo by Jenny Graham.

Sheila Tousey, Ava Mingo, and Uma Paranjpe. Photo by Jenny Graham.

Miriam empowers Hero to communicate her doubts. No Shakespeare words are changed, but the superb direction lets gestures and the tone of voice get the message across that Hero isn’t sure the that Much Ado plot outlines a genuine comedy.

Another point to applaud is Miriam’s Director’s Notes. I never read the director’s comments before I attend a performance. I want what I see on the stage unveil the director’s vision and I really don’t want to get an intellectual discussion about what the director meant for me to see. But now, after I’ve enjoyed Much Ado, I am impressed about how intentional Miriam was in exploring the various emotions. I actually felt on stage what she described in her notes. Wow. What calculated artistry!

I look forward to seeing more shows under Miriam’s direction. In the meantime I strongly recommend enjoying this 2024 adventure.
5 out of 5 Syntaxes 

Posted in osf, plays | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“Jane Eyre” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Jane Eyre

Adapted by Elizabeth Williamson from the novel by Charlotte Brontë
Directed by Dawn Monique Williams 

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare Fetival  May 31 – October 11, 2024

 Caroline Schaffer, Thilini Dissanyake, Jennie Greenberry. Photo by Jenny Graham.

Jane Eyre cast members Caroline Schaffer, Thilini Dissanyake, Jennie Greenberry. Photo by Jenny Graham.

I cannot do a true review of this performance. I would have had to stay past intermission to give a comprehensive report on the show and I and one other playgoing friend just had no desire to come back for Act II.

Director Dawn Monique Williams did a fine job of replicating a slow, overwrought Victorian novel. So much elaborateness and so little to focus on in my philistine opinion.

The acting and onstage progression were unremarkable. Well done, but it ultimately failed my test of who cares.

A 2-star evening… if I had stayed.

Rating 2 out of 5 Syntaxes 

Posted in osf, plays | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“Virgins to Villains” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Virgins to Villains

Created and performed by Robin Goodrin Nordli
Directed by Penny Metropulos

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare Fetival  May 16 – July 19, 2024

Robin Goodrin Nordli in "Virgins to Villains"

Robin Goodrin Nordli in Virgins to Villains. Photo by Jenny Graham

This one-person show by excellent veteran actor Robin Goodrin Nordli weaves highlights of her life with the characters she has played on stage. She has performed in 61 productions of 30 of Shakespear’s play, and the master class snippets of those roles shared in Virgins to Villains do an uncannily wonderful job of illustrating Robin’s real life ups and downs.

First of all, when Robin talks she is clear, forceful, engaging, and simply fun. Her telling of personal and professional development is truly interesting. It’s completely satisfying to my inner voyeur.

The stories of her experience as a young woman smacked me with the endemic sexism that I remember as the norm when I was the age of her younger self. It turns out she’s a year or so younger than I am, but the treatment of women and the barriers she related made me uncomfortable again. Her history was sometimes too real.

Robin Goodrin Nordli in "Virgins to Villains"

Robin Goodrin Nordli in Virgins to Villains. Screenshot from an OSF video.

When she dips into a monologue or conversation from one of her stage characters her full talent is captivating. I always love watching Robin on stage, and having her cherry pick memorable scenes is so enjoyable!

We had seen Robin tell her story and do ad hoc scenes before. Maybe 10 years ago at the Presidio Officers’ Club? Something like that.

But today’s Virgins to Villains is an order of magnitude more powerful. Her earlier reminiscences of her Shakespeare experiences were launched from what she refers to as a music stand. She read from notes, did scenes, commented slightly on her life, and was thoroughly entertaining.

Robin Goodrin Nordli in "Virgins to Villains"

Robin Goodrin Nordli in Virgins to Villains.
Photo by Jenny Graham

However, under the direction and guidance of Penny Metropulos Robin has a real story to share. In a talkback Robin mentioned some of the instructions that someone (Penny? somene else?) gave: she had to memorize the whole show and not read from notes; she had to list roles and life events in two columns and address how the two matched up. Brilliant advice that was perfectly executed.

So, on one hand you’re mesmerized hearing how Robin became the person Robin. You simultaneously track the increasing complexity of the characters she’s playing. They go together. The younger, more innocent Robin did a great job playing the comedic or giggly or simply young Shakespeare virgins. The more mature Robin has a depth to infuse into the dense and thorny female villains.

Robin Goodrin Nordli in "Virgins to Villains"

Robin Goodrin Nordli in Virgins to Villains. Photo by Jenny Graham

The balance between Robin’s story and the performing of scenes is also perfect. She uses the Shakespeare as a way to move the narration along, going ahead without getting too much into the weeds of her personal story. And, as I said before, when she acts… just sit and enjoy.

Virgins to Villains rightfully mentions Oregon Shakespeare Festival often. Afterall she’s worked there for 26 seasons. But you don’t need to have been to OSF to appreciate the performance. Robin – and Penny – give a incredibly well crafted 90 minutes of meaningful quality entertainment.

Talk to your local theaters. This is a one-person show that definitely should make the rounds!

A definite 5-star show.
5 out of 5 Syntaxes 

Posted in osf, plays | Tagged | Leave a comment