1 star | Dangerous Common Sense

“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. 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 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.

Hannah and the Dread Gazebo

Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Hannah and the Dread Gazebo :: Photo OSF

Hannah and the Dread Gazebo
by Jiehae Park
WORLD PREMIERE

At least half of the audience has a wonderful time seeing a fun show with amusing characters. But, make no mistake about what’s amusing: Asian stereotypes speaking pigeon English while committing cultural faux pas that annoy the very “American” 20-something children of the butt of the jokes.

2017 audiences would not put up with a performance whose entertainment value hinged on older African Americans portrayed as lazy Stepin Fetchit’s. That racism would not be considered amusing.

But, apparently it’s still okay to anchor an evening’s laughs on over-emotional, bicycle riding, odd-speaking Asians. It’s especially okay when the play is written by person of Korean heritage.

You can examine stereotypes, make them amusing, and still treat the characters with respect. Last year’s Vietgone! played off the cultural divide of immigrant Asian generations. Vietgone! worked to tell the story of the now-older, immigrant generation, integrating the Old-World myths into a unified family history that that story’s playwright shared with audiences with love, respect, and… yes… humor. (I still remember fondly the Ninja motorcycle fight!)

But, in Hannah, there is no cultural reconciliation. Instead, it’s all about the title character. Quirky-acting Grandmother, Mother, and Dad exist only for Hannah’s self-absorbed attempt to connect to her family and cultural heritage. Over-the-top caricatures come and go as Hannah makes meaning of her family and centuries of Korean heritage… all in the two weeks she has allowed for this revelation, or, if you prefer, in the 90-minute running time of the play. She never seems to catch on to what Dad or anyone else is about unless the storyline also involves her. Korean stuff remains alien and laugh-inducing to the end.

Beyond the racism, the play is simply poorly constructed and written.

It’s another one of those plays so loaded with Symbolism and Meaning that you know you’re a boob for not appreciating the greatness of it all. I confess I struggled. I tried to add meaning to the thin, often-repeated, poorly detailed story of a bear and a tiger. That gem had so much importance, and so much of that importance remains lost on me.

Then there are the great moments of Magical Realism — or of something. One favorite is the dropping of a severed bloody foot into Mother’s hands when she is in a dream scene on a roof. Of course that foot drop gets a laugh because it’s such an absurd piece of physical comedy. But, I am also sure that the oversized bleeding prop had much deep meaning that I need to be educated on. Unfortunately, it was just one of so many MR moments that I really didn’t appreciate fully.

There is an entire semester, if not academic year, that explores the reason for the magpie, rock, and why the females in this particular family have a “wish”. Pretentious hogwash.

Sean Jones

I also need to complain about casting. There are many lines where Sean Jones (Dang, Hannah’s brother) talks about being disoriented in Seoul because everyone looks just like him, so Asian. Well, all the cast in Hannah does look Asian and has Asian surnames, except for Sean. The mismatch between the physical character and his lines is disconcerting. Sean is tall, dark, hairy, and doesn’t have discernibly Asian features (whatever they are). When he bemoans how everyone in Korea looks just like him, you want to see his DNA test to see where Ancestry.com says he really comes from. (In a panel discussion, he explained that he is half Japanese.)

Of course, Sean does an admirable job acting in the role. It’s not his fault that his looks don’t match the script. And, all the other actors are just fine, too. My unhappiness has nothing to do with the onstage talent or the technical aspects of the show.

Finally, let me assure you that although I get only a “C” on the symbolism test, I have an inkling that the play is about Hannah coming to understand her heritage, getting her mother through a depression, and about the family in general. But, Hannah doesn’t do a great job of growing. And, Hannah’s quest has nothing to do why the audience is having a good time. Her search is a cover to allow the racist core to masquerade as art.

Simply, the audience enjoys the performance because of the witty, snarky anti-Asian cartoons that are the foundation of this 90-minute travesty.

I am disappointed, and say Hannah rates .