Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalKing Lear by William Shakespeare I guess it's a relief to discover that Artist Director Bill Rauch can stumble as a director.  After seeing one amazing Rauch production after another, year in and year out, it is cathartic to experience a badly-focused, inconsistent performance in which many actors and crafts still excel but which, overall, disappoints. Bill Rauch is a fallible human after all. The intimate space of the Thomas Theater is perfect for the play's intense family interactions.Unfortunately,  there is no uniting vision in this production, and so even a very good Lear -- [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalTroilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare Most of the flash and bang of this infrequently produced Shakespeare play comes from the modern ordinance that accompanies Troilus and Cressida’s teleportation into the 21st Century Middle East.  T&C is not bad entertainment, but I experienced no bite, no zing in this deeply cynical tale. The story of how almost everyone at every level is dishonest or deluded, especially when it comes to patriotic wars, is an always-timely subject.  While the language is clear and the context maintained throughout this performance, only once did I feel truly [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalParty People by UNIVERSES (Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, Steven Sapp, and William Ruiz/Ninja) developed and directed by Liesl Tommy The authors of this world-premiere, commissioned American Revolutions production told us in the post-performance audience talk-back that the Young Lords and the Black Panthers had effected their lives even though they had no knowledge of the groups themselves.  One creator’s first job was in clinic started by the Young Lords, and another routinely benefited from social programs started by the Black Panthers.  These racially-identified local community organizations truly changed the neighborhoods and residents’ lives. The artistic challenge for [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalAll the Way by Robert Schenkkan Robert Schenkkan has written a masterful script that projects a sharp look at the leaders of America during the year which was more or less between my 10th and 11th birthdays.  I had expected a pleasant play that would remind me of my precocious political awakening.  I wound up dazzled by how well Schenkkan presents the feel of that first post-Kennedy year and by the tragic-hero humanness of the real-life figures that fought for civil rights, the Great Society, and for the liberal values that made the United [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalThe Very Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa Written by Alison Carey Adapted from the play by William Shakespeare I cannot recall walking out at intermission at Oregon Shakespeare Festival before, but unless I was going to start hissing from the front row, I had to leave last night. This sledge-hammer piece of political correctness is so crass and blatant that I felt creepily unclean as a beneficiary of its message of equality. On a grand scale, VMWWI is a modern adaptation of the jealousy and intrigue depicted in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.  In [...]

Ashland, Oregon Opening Performance, February 26, 2012 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Seagull Written by Anton Chekhov Adapted and Directed by Libby Appel A three-word summary review of Seagull:  unfortunate play selection. Everything about this production was well done.  The actors hit the right note in everything they did.  Chris Acebo’s set took inventive advantage of the New Theater’s intimacy.  Deb Dryden’s clothes were rich and a nice counterpart to the early sparseness of the stage.  Libby Apple directed a consistent, restrained, and intelligent vision of this Chekhov classic.  Even with all the top-notch craft work, the scenes dragged and [...]

Ashland, Oregon World Premiere Opening Performance, February 25, 2012 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival The White Snake Written and Directed by Mary ZimmermanPlaywright Mary Zimmerman has distilled an ancient, often modified, Chinese legend of The White Snake into a coherent, relevant, engrossing, artistic, and accessible 138-minute story. The text is stylized and full of Eastern cultural references, but Zimmerman’s lively, humorous, and rich approach somehow [“somehow” as in “the magic happens here”] honors the fable’s roots while letting it transcend its place and time of origin.  The White Snake avoids being artsy fartsy as Zimmerman’s works have been in the [...]

Ashland, Oregon Opening Night at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare In Director Laird Williamson vision, Romeo and Juliet is a farcical melodramatic moral play filled with bawdy clowns.  It’s a slapstick tragedy, a category  underrepresented on modern stage.  The script’s only fault is the pesky obvious rhymes and flowery language that can be best gotten through in a quick pace at high volume.  Williamson has ordered up so many pelvic thrusts for the hormonal young men that the show is unsuitable for school tours.  What in other productions comes off as witty sexual innuendo, Williamson [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalThe African Company Presents Richard III by Carlyle Brown The African Company Presents Richard III is a very satisfying vehicle to exhibit extraordinary acting in service of a a not terrible, not overwrought script.  The play-within-a-play scenes give us some riveting moments as the actors play their characters and then their characters slip into their roles in Shakespeare's Richard III for a few stanzas.  Kevin Kenerly (as James Hewlett) is excellent and the dominating presence on stage throughout the evening.  He's sweet, stupid, overly focused, driven, and practical as Hewlett, and then instantly differently [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalGhost Light conceived and developed by Jonathan Moscone and Tony Taccone written by Tony Taccone directed by Jonathan Moscone When Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced it was commissioning a play on the shooting of Harvey Milk and George Moscone I was half pleased that gay civil rights would be a topic mentioned in the festival's 37-play United States History Cycle and half apprehensive about seeing another cover of the Milk assassination already spotlighted very well in Execution of Justice and in the movies The Times of Harvey Milk and Milk. My assumptions about the play topic [...]