Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson
Much of the impact of this play draws from the emotional baggage carried around by Kevin Kenerly’s character Levee. His hard-working family’s destruction by violent bigots when Levee was only eight brings menacing emotion into this blues recording session in 1927’s Chicago, 25 years later.
Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
The only question being debated among the audience departing after Faustus is whether the evening is disappointing because of the insensitive direction of James Edmonson or whether the performance was doomed as soon as Artistic Director Libby Appel selected this 16th Century version of the classic make-a-bargain-with-the-devil fable. No one argues that Faustus is a great – or even good – theatrical experience.
Perhaps only because Faustus is still performed by many different companies, I come down on the blame-the-director side. Moreover, even if it were a stinky play, the director has given no help with his demand for broad, broader, broadest possible over-acting.
American Conservatory Theater – San Francisco through July 10
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? Notes Toward a Definition of a Tragedy by Edward Albee
It’s easier to describe my reaction and feelings about this intense and intricately-written 2000’s family drama than it is to talk about the play itself. I know how wrapped up in the language, plots, relationships, and misery I was. I can tell you I couldn’t get a full sentence out until we were well past the lobby doors and down a few blocks. I can confess to having completely missed two MUNI stops on the way home as I was reliving the evening in my mind.
I beg the theater to consider opening the bar after the performance for the rest of the run. It’d be safer to let people operate heavy machinery with a couple shots in them than it is to turn them loose without decompression.
On a narrative level the play itself is dumbly outlandish. Martin (Don R. McManus), a 50-year-old, truly happily married man has fallen in love with a goat while on a trip to a farm. Martin confesses his affair to his best friend Ross (Charles Shaw Robinson) who tells the protagonist’s wife, Stevie (Pamela Reed). Their gay 18-year-old son, Billy (Joseph Parks), gets caught up in this parent’s relationship struggle.
Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Napoli Milionaria! by Eduardo De Filippo, new translation by Linda Alper & Beatrice Basso
Set in Naples during and immediately after World War II, De Filippo’s play chronicles the evolution of a law-abiding, religious family into a group of survivors. No, they’re more than simply survivors. The mother’s black-market sale of rationed foodstuffs and luxuries eventually provides her and her family millions of lire which both stuff the mattress and move the family away from their traditional life and makes them a success story.
But, this black comedy was written to allow only a partial wealth-induced happiness. The story is full of nagging morality and murky details. While the mother, Dona Amalia played by OSF infallible veteran Linda Alper, wheels and deals coffee, flour, and more, her husband, Gennaro (Richard Elmore) worries about getting caught and worries about the rightness and wrongness of the black-market dealings.
Details on the play and the actors
Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Room Service by J.R. Sullivan
Grade B fluff. Pure and simple farce done well that offers no redeeming social value or entertaining special spark.
This revival of a 1937 work continues Oregon Shakespeare’s puzzling determination to have an annual comedy about a play within a play. This year’s offering is well executed, but hasn’t the timing fun of Noises Off and is otherwise pedestrian and predictable. At least it isn’t as leaden as last year’s The Royal Family.
The cast is credible and does a fine job. Chris DuVal as the young playwright gets to bounce on the furniture — as he seems destined to do whenever he’s cast in a light role — but that’s just a personal annoyance of mine.
This play will be a hit with audiences. Ho, ho, ho!
There’s just not much to say about it… or recommend it over a re-run of Seinfeld or other comedy about nothing.
Ozdachs rating: ** out of *****