Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austin adapted by Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan I saw Pride and Prejudice at its opening several months ago, and I have been struggling to write about it ever since. It's not that the production was so good or so bad that words fail me, it's that examining this sure-fire crowd pleaser is as pointless as the movie critics panning Sex in the City 2.  Basically, any review of either production isn't going to matter to anyone.  Fans of the genre are going to go and applaud, regardless of the [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalWell written by Lisa Kron It’s 105 minutes of “Did You Get It?”-sledgehammer-over-the-audience’s-head time as Well crawls its way to an unsatisfying conclusion.   Stand-up comedian Lisa Kron wrote this sketch play that is repeatedly not about her relationship with her mother. Not about her mother who is lounging prominently on stage even as the audience takes its seats.  Not. Get it? To be fair to Kron, I’ve talked to people who liked the play when it was at San Francisco’s ACT, it won Tony Award nominations for its lead characters when it was on [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalHamlet written by William Shakespeare directed by Bill Rauch Dan Donohue’s Hamlet is so strong, so conversational, so underplayed, so accessible that every moment of the play belongs to him.  In some productions, Hamlet shows up on stage as a wandering soul with a mouth full of pretty words.  Not here.  This Hamlet is at the knowing center of all action and activity.  The plot, the motives, the night, the story, the tragedy are all clear and all his. This Hamlet is not a callow 20-something who wound up at school, but a deferred [...]