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Great Expectations

Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Great Expectations
adapted by Penny Metropulos and Linda Alper
from the novel by Charles Dickens
directed by Penny Metropulos

Benjamin Bonenfant and Judith-Marie Bergan in “Great Expectations”. OSF photo.

Sadly, spectacular acting cannot overcome a flawed script, and this world premiere adaption of Dickens’ Victorian masterpiece novel feels more like a well done intellectual exercise instead of engrossing theater.

Adapters have to be ruthless. They have to identify what can be communicated in the new medium and then transform the storytelling to work on stage. No doubt that beautiful plots and characters present in a 500+ page book each enrich the written tale. But, on stage too much textual exposition is a mismatch. Instead of adding to the evening, narration distances the audience from the characters and action.

OSF’s Great Expectations fails to adapt and instead remains tied to the use of rich language and verbal exposition. The “play” uses an onstage chorus to narrate most of the arc of maturation of the hero Pip. The narrators do more than bridge the time, they state changes in the characters’ world view and manner of interacting with each other. We are told rather than shown what people are doing, thinking, and feeling.

More than anything, Great Expectations feels like a reading rather than a performance. Great gobs of change are revealed in paragraphs of onstage narration. The chorus stops. Characters come on in front of the audience and deliver a vignette that validates what the chorus just told us. The actors scurry off stage, and the chorus comes back on to speak to us about what happens next.

It’s impossible to get involved in the lives of the people we are meeting.

The set doesn’t help bring us into the world on stage. Pushed back from the audience, there is very, very, very little scenery on the stage. Instead there is a ever-present backdrop of dark slats with barren dark runways and steps for the actors to walk around. The look is modern art and metallic — I thought of a Ruth Asawa sculpture forced to serve as scenery. There is nothing Victorian, Dickinson, or engaging about what we see.

The costumes also were spotty. Designer Deb Dryden did a fine job putting the actors in classic Dickens-story clothes. They were appropriately and unobtrusively Victorian. But, I was distracted by the director’s decision to have the endlessly reappearing chorus show up in the same Christmas-green Victorian robes that made me think that they were going to burst out caroling at any moment. Some variety or a less seasonal color would have been better.

The performance’s best moments are the opening scenes with Derrick Lee Weeden (Magwitch) and child actor Bodhi Johnson (young Pip). The violence, terror, anxiousness, and humanity at the first moments are great theater. Real, frightening, and emotionally genuine. But, then the chorus starts up and we never regain the immersion in the onstage action.

Early on we almost get back as young Pip, his stepfather Joe (played by Al Espinosa), and Magwitch act out the first plot line superbly. But, the acting is quickly inundated and overwhelmed by the narration. The story is told to us, we enjoy it, but we never re-enter its world.

The believably of the onstage action is not helped by the comic overacting that appears at odd moments without reason. After the real, gripping fright of the scenes between Magwitch and Pip, Mrs. Joe (played by Amy Newman) comes on stage and offers a caricature of an abusive adoptive parent. Her viciousness is not funny. Her actions intensify the trauma suffered by Pip. So, why is it overacted to the point of giggles?

The lack of engagement aside, the performance is not painful. The story is interesting, it’s clear, and the actors deliver their lines sharply. Michael Elich as Mr. Jaggers, Judith-Marie Bergan as Miss Havisham (I saw in the opening night performance before illness forced her offstage and Caroline Shaffer assumed the role) and Richard Howard as Wemmick are particularly strong.

You’ll survive Great Expectations, but your conversation home will be filled with suggestions on how the adapters should have done things differently.

Ozdachs rating:

By Galen|2016-09-05T12:25:34-07:00September 5, 2016|osf, plays|0 Comments

The River Bride

Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The River Bride
by Marisela Treviño Orta

Some plays are so mystical and rich with meaning that I feel inadequate. I know I should be getting more from the plot, from the language, from gestures, from everything. I am not worthy to be viewing the performance and should only be allowed back in the theater after completing a refresher course of Symbolism 201.

Either that, or the play itself actually is thin, obvious, and over hyped.

My ego makes me choose the later reason for my reaction to The River Bride.

Ensemble from “The River Bride”. Photo by OSF.

The story is set in an isolated Central Amazon fishing village and the story brings to life a fable concerning love and dolphin men.

I wanted a character to root for, but I could not settle on the too good/prissy daughter, and the younger vixen was not a reasonable alternative. Mom and Dad were too flat and simultaneously opaque. The acting was excellent throughout, but there was a feeling of mystical “woo-woo”ism in too many of the scenes. The characters floated, even in action scenes.

My mind drifted. If we were in the central Amazon area, should the characters be Hispanic/Latino or more indigenous? OSF is color blind in its casting of traditional shows, but they make an effort to do ethnic casting when the focus is on non-white experiences. But, are the people in the interior of the Amazon really Portuguese-speaking Hispanics? Probably I should trust the playwright who names the characters Moises, Senhor, Senhora. I am just ignorant. Oh, wait. What’s been going on the stage for the past five minutes?

Ultimately I felt like I was watching a new play that was good for me to experience. I wanted to like it and the characters more

Ozdachs rating:

By Galen|2016-09-05T11:56:59-07:00September 5, 2016|osf, plays|0 Comments

Twelfth Night

Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare

Director Christopher Liam Moore invented a brilliant, fun concept for this workhorse comedy: set it on a 1930’s movie musical set. Emphasize the scripted music and add more song and dance! Unleash the voices and tapping toes! Keep the Shakespeare give it 20th Century Foxiness!

Scenes are sharp, funny homages to classic the musical films of the day. Susan Tsu’s costumes are elegant and completely right. You get your ticket’s worth from the fashion show alone.

Twelfth Night – photo by OSF

You will be talking for years about Moore’s use of technology to create an old-time video to let Sara Bruner appear together in a climatic scene as both shipwrecked twins, Viola and Sebastian. The bed and breakfast crowd oohed and ah’ed over the tap dancing scene. So much fun!

Except, for me, it wasn’t much fun. The acting was manic not measured. Lines were screamed constantly, and I found it impossible to get drawn in or care.

“A spectacularly funny romp,” is the Eugene Art Talk review snippet OSF highlights on one of its website slides. Unfortunately I think it was more a disorganized, noisy riot than artistic romp.

I saw the play on opening night in February. Ashlanders say that the frenzy has been tamed somewhat as the run progresses. I hope so because there was innovation in the approach and plenty of talent on stage. Yet, for me, it was not a very pleasant evening.

Ozdachs rating:

By Galen|2017-01-02T14:28:10-08:00September 5, 2016|osf, plays|0 Comments

The Happiest Song Plays Last

Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The Happiest Song Plays Last
by Quiara Alegría Hudes

Soldiers Daniel Duque-Estrada and Barzin Akhavan.

Daniel Duque-Estrada (Elliot) and Barzin Akhavan (Ali). Photo by Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

The Happiest Song Plays Last, the third installment of Iraq war veteran Elliot Ortiz’s struggle with his combat experience and aftermath, fulfills the promise of the complex emotional saga. While nominally about Elliot, three characters have legitimate claim to be considered the lead: Elliot (Daniel Duque-Estrada), his cousin Yaz (Nancy Rodriguez), and Yaz’s neighbor Agustin (Armando Duran). Even then, some of the deepest scenes center on other characters, Ali (Barzin Akhavan) and Lefty (Bruce Young).

This play is a gripping, draining, intense, tender, and difficult. Like the two earlier chapters in Elliot saga (Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue and Water by the Spoonful), The Happiest Song Plays Last lingers on psychological damage and the details of personal terror.

The play exists to discover the relationships between the characters and the characters’ growth. The Ashland production succeeds magnificently because of the vision of the director, Shishir Kurup, and the cast. I have read views of other productions from around the country, and they and the awards panels have favored Water by the Spoonful to the The Happiest Song Plays Last based on what they perceive as the strength of the core stories. All I can say is that they just didn’t see The Happiest Song Plays Last at OSF.

Because I have friends who are refugees from the Middle East and Northern Africa, I was smacked particularly hard by the scenes in Jordan and Egypt. The vignettes between Elliot and Ali, an Iraqi army veteran now working on the same war movie that Elliot is starring in, were so simple and so wrenching. Truly brilliantly underacted by both men, the exchange of soldier understanding between people who fought on different sides was powerful beyond words. The look in Ali’s eyes, the pauses, and the awkward recoveries of both soldiers back to the manly present were brilliantly written and executed.

Those moments were key to the Elliot’s eventual integration of his soldier past into the present with a new generation of Americans and Iraqis. They were beautiful, tear-inspiring moments.

Duque-Estrada’s Elliot also is an order of magnitude more impressive than the one we saw on stage last year. In Water by the Spoonful Elliot was played by a young, less mature, physically-never-a-Marine actor. This Elliot looks the part both in size and in world-experience expression.

Elliot’s sojourn through the war didn’t just affect him. Throughout the play series, his family and neighborhood in Puerto Rican Philadelphia struggled with his soldiering and trauma. In this concluding part of his story, his cousin and her neighbor further the family and community’s distance from Elliot’s initial service.

Armando Duran and Nancy Rodriguez in "The Happiest Song Plays Last"

Armando Duran (Agustin) and Nancy Rodriguez (Yaz). Photo by Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Agustin, the neighbor, is given the spotlight as his personal journey and musical compulsion well represent his age and its more ethnically centered worldview. Agustin’s scenes are simultaneously lyrical and realistic. His chemistry with Yaz spans the generations, and the shared neighborhood exposure glues their relationship.

Elliot, Agustin, and Yaz are all major roles. Ali, Shar, and Lefty are given less stage time, but have real, significant impact on the story. Ali in particular is irresistibly compelling. I found myself bidding on a dinner hosted by the actor at a charity auction, and I think it was because I wanted to know more about Ali and his life.

The crafts were faultless. Set, clothing, lighting, sound all were top-notch professional. But, to be honest, The Happiest Song Plays Last is completely dependent on the acting. And, each actor on stage deserved the standing ovation.

The production also has the best cell phone announcement ever. Before the play starts, street-person Lefty is on stage arranging flowers, blankets,… whatever. He then stops and chats with the audience about cell phones and cough drops. His brief banter deserves some iPhone or Android award.

I did feel that the ending of the trilogy left some questions unresolved. Elliot buries the past in the final scene. Does it stay buried? Does his cousin simultaneously recover from her emotional funk? And, how about the 3-year-old Iraqi described very late in the play?

I guess we are never assured that the happy ending sticks. But, without wanting to risk the unraveling shown Into the Woods, I would have liked the story to seem more final and less wrapped up in 5 minutes. Still, it’s an excellent experience.

Ozdachs rating:

By Galen|2015-08-26T15:05:37-07:00August 25, 2015|osf, plays|2 Comments

Head Over Heels — World Premiere

Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Head Over Heels
Play by Jeff Whitty
Music and Lyrics by the Go-Go’s

Jonathan Tufts and Ensemble. Photo by Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Head Over Heels is the latest saucy work from the razor-sharp, careful, sensitive, and insanely clever mind of Jeff Whitty. His inventive approaches to story telling are twisted and brilliant, and this Oregon Shakespeare Festival production exquisitely delivers pure fun.

The play uses the Go-Go’s songbook as the source of its music, although Music Director Geraldine Anello has dramatically freed some of the arrangements from the original signature driving beat when Whitty’s book demands it.

Head Over Heels is no drivelly biographic jukebox musical. Whitty says his book started with Sir Philip Sidney’s 16th-century pastoral romance, Arcadia, and the characters speak in iambic pentameter. Whitty also populates the story with traditional Shakespeare-like characters (clown, pushy daughter, sensitive younger daughter, etc.) But, the core to the play’s success are the family relationships and story twists and turns which are dangerously modern and exuberant.

I could exhaust myself reaching for superlative adjectives that describe the intellectual frolicking onstage. I was giddy with the constancy of the subtle zingers in the script. Some were laugh-out-loud funny, others kept my face in a grin that hurt my muscles.

All the excellent fluff is ENTERTAINING! But, Head Over Heels is subversive in the way it unveils the normality of a range of sexual orientations. The audience roots for the two couples of young lovers to overcome the obstacles to their coupling (which in each case is both a lack of self-knowledge and class). The fact that one couple is straight and the other lesbian is not even noted in the script nor in any reaction.

Identifying a single outstanding character is problematic. The acting and singing was nuanced and strong.

Jonathan Tufts (Philanax) as the fey narrator and clown was funny, obvious, and completely engaging. He plays against type and plays it just right.

Bonnie Milligan (Pamela, the older daughter) belts out her character and songs, oozing with the self confidence of an un-selfquestioning older sibling. She’s great when she consoles Tala Ashe (Philoclea, her sister) over how much prettier she, Pamela, is. Bonnie is a large woman and made up to emphasize her bigness, while Tala is smaller and traditionally more attractive.

Ah! There it is again! Another invisible cultural concept correction snuck into the script by Whitty. Pamela’s rating of herself as the much more attractive sister is never corrected or smirked at onstage. The audience knows her self-assessment is wrong,… but is it? No one in the play seems to think so.

Now, back to the performances. All deserve praise! But, really Miriam Laube (Gynecia, the mother of the family) has to be singled out for doing an outstanding job, reminding us that she does not need to be in the title role or to be in center stage to own the scene. She was believable and fun.

“Thank you!” to Michael Sharon (Basilius, the father), Dylan Paul (Musidorus, Philoclea’s beau), Tala, Britney Simpson (Mopsa, Pamela’s lust object), and Michele Mais (the Oracle). The actors and dancers who are not featured delivered energetic, tight, and fully wonderful performances, too. Heartfelt applause to all!

Director Ed Sylvanus Iskandar was helped by the continuing collaboration of Whitty and the creative team, but that help doesn’t detract from the fact that he made all aspects of the production fit together as comfortably as an in an old classic. The set by Christopher Acebo focused the audience while giving the cast plenty of room to romp, dance, and play. It was masterfully useful.

Loren Shaw’s outrageous, vivid costumes matched completely the words, music, and action. They were wholly over the top, but in a reassuring good way. Look at the sample of the costuming in the picture posted here… detailed and individual works of art.

I also liked the treatment of the Go-Go’s songs. The occasional recasting and reworking of the tone let the depth of the music and lyrics become audible when the original versions served mainly as energy vehicles. Head Over Heels uses every bit of depth in the groups entire songbook to carry the show. If I have any concern it is that there is more enjoyable Whitty story than there is Go-Go’s music.

Head Over Heels is quick, smart, and complex. It’s a must-see… but, if you don’t make it to Ashland, I bet you’ll be able to see it on Broadway.

Ozdachs Rating:

By Galen|2015-08-23T16:50:34-07:00August 23, 2015|osf, plays|0 Comments

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