Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival opening performance, February 23, 2008 The Clay Cart by Sudraka (Translated by J.A.B. van Buitenen) I’ve never seen a live-action Disney cartoon pageant before.  It was wonderful! A rich, gorgeous stage filled with 40-some actors hosted this 2000-year-old play. The cast moved the story and the audience with their words, gestures, dance, and singing.  A funny, poignant, and biting social comedy, the evening was completely enjoyable and satisfying.  Its challenges, heroes,  problems, and villains were no lifeless abstract ancient stylizations — we still fight the same evil kings and their rapacious cronies. It’s [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival opening performance, February 23, 2008 Fences by August Wilson The opening of Fences revealed a shaky story shakily told. I assume that it’s the script which has inconsistencies and false starts that Oregon Shakespeare merely brought forward.  Certainly this production didn’t weave together a clear or consistent or entertaining storyline from whatever August Wilson wrote. To begin, various cast members stumbled over lines at least a half dozen times.  Blowing lines in an obvious way is my personal pet peeve;  it always jars me out of the moment. And, these Fences characters had [...]

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalRomeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Director and future Artistic Director Bill Rauch found ways to make this classic fresh and standout from the pack of “another Romeo and Juliet”.  Rauch’s creativity augers well for his upcoming run as the festival’s Visionary In Chief. This is a fast-paced R&J, and it is viewed with a generation gap at the center of the drama.  The parents’ generation is decked out in old fogy Elizabethan grab while the young adults and town folk are with-it, modern, dressed as prep school students and in current-day suits. The parents are stuck [...]

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalTracy’s Tiger  Book and Lyrics by Linda Alper, Douglas Langworthy, and Penny Metropulos Composer: Sterling Tinsley When I rail against musicals, I am denouncing the big stage, big production number shows that seem only incidentally interested in the erstwhile story.  I am frustrated beyond reason by those extravaganza’s whose spoken words serve only as bridges for a street urchin, young lover, or wandering king to burst forth in rah-rah upbeat song.  Go to a concert or a piano bar if you want that type of entertainment.  But, don’t call it an evening of theater. These [...]

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalDistracted  by Lisa Loomer The cacophony of cell phones, bad hip hop, and telemarketing calls is familiar. The witty commentary on our overstimulated life is satisfying and relaxing.  The faux concerned neighbors, teachers, and doctors are so recognizable that they’re disarming. The script is sufficiently pleasant and smugness-producing that it takes a while for the realization to develop that you’re watching a Neil Simon commentary on ADHD, teenage self-mutilation, and some true terrors of parenthood. The dialog nails the thoughts and conversations of today’s educated middle-class.  The Ashland audience is watching itself on stage, [...]

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalThe Tempest  by William Shakespeare Note to self:  You do not like The Tempest.  You think it is pretty much a waste of time. In the first act one implausible thing happens after another, and the remainder of the play just doesn't have enough pleasurable fantasies or moralistic outcomes to redeem the show. You sucker yourself into seeing this show because the storm and spirits sound frightening and fun.  They're not worth it. Remember the 2007 Oregon Shakespeare Festival production?  It had Derrick Lee Weeden as Prospero and Dan Donohue as Caliban.  They did excellent [...]

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalThe Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare There’s so much chemistry between Vilma Silva’s Katherina and Michael Elich’s Petruchio that this male chauvinism manual almost escapes its own words.  Silva is a striking, confident, beautiful woman.  Elich is vigorous and sexy in a way that seems unique to wiry bald men.  Together on stage the are in love and lust. This production is a straight-on shrew taming.  No winks, nods, or knowing looks that sometimes indicate that Kate is complicit in a charade.  No, in this staging Kate and Petruchio may be in love, but Kate learns [...]

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Tartuffe by Moliere, translated by Ranjit Bolt Damn, it’s satisfying when a hoary piece of “accessible” culture is given genuine life on stage.  When I last saw Tartuffe it was played for all of the pretentious fluff possible.  The play had no present meaning, unless you read the scholarly playbill notes.  It was a happy vacuous evening of Theatre.  Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the 2002 translation by Ranjit Bolt, have banished that cotton candy Tartuffe from my memory. They’ve created a production that’s equally good fun and sharp satire. The book is still happily over-populated [...]

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson The excellence of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production serves to point out the flaws in this first episode of August Wilson's 10-play series on the Afro-American experience in America in the 20th Century.  The evening oozes importance and great meaning.  The cast rises to the challenge.  Unfortunately, this penultimately written saga tries to do too much and fails to do much.  The play confuses instead of illuminates.  Set in  Pittsburgh in1904, the story deals with the ambiguity of the new de jure freedom for black people which runs up [...]

Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard Either your the type of person who laughs non-stop at silly sit-coms or you're not.  If you're not, then there's no use in someone talking to you about the quality of the script, the acting, the physical humor, or any of the other skills employed in the show.  I am not a sit-com aficionado.  So don't waste your time explaining how right and funny a plot line you saw was. And, that's my feeling about On the Razzle, Oregon Shakespeare's obligatory farce for the season.  It just [...]