Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalThe Language Archive by Julia Cho I saw the opening performance of The Language Archive in February and suffered much embarrassment on our drive up to Ashland for our annual Memorial Day visit as I was asked about the play.  Even when I was prompted with a listing of the title, cast, and writer, I could not remember a thing about the story itself. It took me many, many minutes to recapture the inability of linguist George (Rex Young) to communicate with those who mattered to him, first his wife Kate Mulligan (Mary) and [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalImaginary Invalid written by Moliere adapted by Oded Gross and Tracy Young Nothing is more pointless than dragging a 450-year-old social satire on to the stage with the original words, digs, and references in tact.  I was not looking forward to a dusty homage to Moliere, but my expectations were low anyway because Imaginary Invalid was the designated -- and mandatory -- silly farce for 2011. Fortunately, Oregon Shakespeare Festival choose to be faithful to the spirit of Moliere instead of being slavishly bound to the original text.  This Invalid is all about the [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalJulius Caesar by William Shakespeare All the best moments of this production of Julius Caesar come before Shakespeare's words are heard on stage: The banners in front of the New Theater venue and in its lobbies memorialize assassinated leaders from Xerxes in ancient Persia through Indira Gandhi in modern India. Stark and powerful, these black and white statements promise an accessible, strong, and contemporary evening. Before going dark, Vilma Silva (Caesar -- no problems for me with this gender twist) introduces herself and asks that the audience participate in the play by cheering for [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalMeasure for Measure by William Shakespeare Shakespeare never tired having his lead characters dress up in disguises and hinging plot lines on the fallout of mistaken identity or secret observations.  I, on the other hand, am weary of boys dressed as girls dressed as boys and kings posing as commoners acting kingly.  Too silly.  It doesn't help my enjoyment that most of these stories are comedies with deus ex machina happy endings. Measure for Measure may be officially a "problem play" and not a comedy, but there are enough absurd happy touches for me to decide [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalCat on a Hot Tin Roof written by Tennessee Williams Oregon Shakespeare Festival at its best strips Classic Plays of their Greatness, and allows the actors on stage to tell a simple story unburdened by the responsibility to live up to the Reputation of the Work of Art.  Their 2010 production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  — which closes too early on July 4 — is an example of OSF at the top of its craft. Director Christopher Moore has blended the original 1955 script with some of the 1974 revisions penned by [...]

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare FestivalRuined written by Lynn Nottage This horror story opens with the audience being dropped into the middle of the ongoing uncivil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Mama Nadi (Kimberly Scott) is the wheeling, dealing savior madame and bar owner who, in the opening scene, is convinced by a trader to take on two new girls.  There are 10 girls who work for Mama (only three appear as characters). All have been victims of political gang rape by soldiers who know that their physical victims will then be cast out of their families [...]

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 [...]