Reviewed by Judy Richter
Change is in the air at the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival in
Ashland, which opened its 2008 season with four plays the weekend of Feb.
22-24. The most obvious change is that Bill Rauch has succeeded the recently
retired Libby Appel as artistic director. (She'll be back to direct Arthur Miller's "A View From the
Bridge"
later this year.) Rauch had previously directed at the festival and began
working at his new job last year, thus planning the current season. Rauch has
made several changes in the structure of the artistic leadership, and some new
faces have replaced familiar ones in the acting company. Nevertheless, many
festival veterans are still onstage, and the newcomers match up to the
festival's standard of excellence.
Rauch
has chosen a widely disparate set of plays to open his first season -- William
Shakespeare, of
course, with "A Midsummer Night's Dream"; an American masterpiece, August
Wilson's "Fences"; a possibly 2,000-year-old
Sanskrit play from India, Sudraka's "The Clay Cart"; and a world premiere,
"Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter," by American playwright Julie Marie Myatt. The first three are in the
Angus Bowmer Theatre, while the latter is in the smaller New Theatre.
Still
to come are seven more plays: Jeff Whitty's "The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler" and Miller's "A View
From the Bridge" in the Bowmer; Shakespeare's "Coriolanus" and Luis Alfaro's "Breakfast, Lunch and
Dinner" in
the New Theatre; and Shakespeare's "Othello" and "The Comedy of
Errors"
along with Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" in the outdoor Elizabethan Stage, which
opens in June. The season runs through Nov. 2.
Here's
rundown on the four season-opening plays:
A
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
You
know you're in for a nontraditional approach to this Shakespeare comedy when the fairy Puck (John
Tufts) appears
in a tutu over black pants with a black mesh muscle shirt and knee-high,
lace-up, black leather boots with high heels and stacked soles (costumes by Katherine
Roth). His
confederates -- Moth (Mark Bedard), Cobweb (Eddie Lopez), Peaseblossom (Neil Shah) and Mustardseed (Edgar
Miguel Sanchez)
-- are similarly garbed as they do a disco-style dance (choreography by Ken
Roht) to music
by sound designer Todd Barton and co-composer Roht.
Guest
director Mark Rucker and his design team set the play in what appears to be the '60s and
early '70s with a stark contrast between the mostly white setting of the court
of Duke Theseus of Athens (Michael Elich) and the far more fanciful forest. Scenic
designer Walt Spangler moves curving metallic towers with lighted circles to denote the
setting, aided by the spectacular lighting design of Robert Peterson, who has created, among other
things, neon star bursts in various colors.
Despite
all the stunning visual effects and the campy fairies, the story itself remains
intact. Hermia (Emily Sophia Knapp) and her beloved Lysander (Tasso Feldman) flee from the court and go to
the forest after Theseus threatens to punish her for disobeying her mother,
Egeus (Linda Alper)
by rejecting Demetrius (Christopher Michael Rivera) as her husband-to-be. As Hermia
and Lysander flee, they're followed by Demetrius and Helena (Kjerstine
Anderson), who
loves Demetrius even though he treats her badly. When Oberon (Kevin Kenerly), king of the fairies, sees
what's happening, he decides to intervene with Puck's help. He also wants to
punish his queen, Titania (Christine Albright), because she won't give him her
changeling child (alternately played by Collin Malcolm and Kevin Weatherby). As the four young people try
to get things sorted out in the forest, they gradually strip down to their
underwear -- symbolic of their shedding the ways of the court and starting
afresh.
Shakespeare
makes things even more interesting with the six rude mechanicals, who are
rehearsing a play for the wedding of Theseus and his intended, Hippolyta (Shona
Tucker), queen
of the Amazons.This motley group arrives in the forest in a psychedelic VW bus
and piles out in full hippie regalia. The most uptight is their ostensible
leader, Peter Quince (U. Jonathan Toppo), while the most voluble is the buffoonish Nick
Bottom (the hilarious Ray Porter). Also in this crew are Francis Flute (Eileen
DeSandre), Tom
Snout (Josiah Phillips), Snug (Jeffrey King) and Robin Starveling (Richard Elmore).
All
works out for the best, and the festival is off to a somewhat racy start.
FENCES
The
late August Wilson's
powerful "Fences" deservedly won both the Tony for best play and the Pulitzer
for drama after its premiere in 1985. As part of his canon of 10 plays set in
each of the 20th century's decades, this one takes place in the 1950s, when
segregation still had a strong grip on the nation despite some breakthroughs.
Guest director Leah C. Gardiner likens the play to Shakespeare's "King Lear." Certainly there are
parallels between Wilson's Troy Maxson (Charles Robinson) and the Bard's Lear. Frayed
father-child relationships are primary, but there's also the raging against the
storm in Lear's case and the raging against Mr. Death in Troy's case. Tragic
flaws lead to the downfall of both heroes.
Troy's
background is far more humble than Lear's. He was born in the South and had
some brushes with the law before moving to Pittsburgh and marrying his beloved
wife, Rose (Shona Tucker). Troy works as a garbage collector and has two sons. The elder,
Lyons (Kevin Kenerly), is from a previous relationship. He's 34, living on his own and
trying to make a living as a musician. He always urges Troy to come hear him
play, but Troy refuses. The younger, Cory (Cameron Knight), is from his marriage. Cory is
a high school senior and a talented football player, so talented that he has
been offered a college scholarship. Troy opposes Cory's dream, ostensibly
because Troy doesn't want his son to experience the disappointment and perceived
discrimination that Troy faced as a baseball player for the Negro Leagues. Rose
says Troy didn't make it because he was too old by the time he got out of jail.
Still, Troy's attitude drives Cory away. The other member of Troy's family is
his brother, Gabriel (G. Valmont Thomas), a child-like man who suffered brain damage in
the war.
Despite
warnings from his genial but wise best friend, Jim Bono (Josiah Phillips), Troy also creates a major rift
with Rose because of an affair he has with another woman, who dies giving birth
to his daughter. The scenes when Troy tells Rose about his pending fatherhood
and later brings his daughter home are wrenching, for Rose is bewildered and
deeply hurt that she wasn't woman enough for him. Troy goes downhill, eventually
drinking himself to death but paving the way for family reconciliation at his
funeral. The role of Raynell, Troy's daughter, at about age 10 is played
alternately by Catiana Graham and Dominique Moore.
The
artistic team helps to tell the story with a set by Scott Bradley, costumes by Elizabeth Hope
Clancy, lighting
by Dawn Chiang,
and music and sound by Michael Keck. The real stars, though, are Wilson's words and
characters, Gardiner's direction and the cast's acting -- all brilliant and
memorable.
THE
CLAY CART
In
keeping with his goal of presenting plays from around the world, director Bill
Rauch chose the
possibly 2,000-year-old "The Clay Cart" from India to help open
the season and to mark his directoral debut as artistic director. Translated
from Sanskrit by J.A.B. van Buitenen, Sudraka's play is basically an old-fashioned love story in which
boy and girl meet, fall in love, overcome obstacles and live happily ever
after. The central characters are Charudatta (Cristofer Jean), a merchant whose generosity
has impoverished him; and Vasantasena (Miriam A. Laube), a respected courtesan. The
obstacles are imposed mainly by the villainous Samsthanaka (Brent Hinkley), who is the evil king's
brother-in-law.
The
play opens impressively with the entire large cast singing music by sound
designer Andre Pluess and sitting outside a circular platform designed by Christopher
Acebo with
lighting by Christopher Akerlind. In the center is a toy cart pulled by Charudatta's son,
Rohasena (alternately played by Jasmine Risser and Kaj Pandey). The production also features
choreography by Anjani Ambegaokar with much of the dancing well done by Laube.
The
first act seems melodramatic with some over-acting, especially by Hinkley.
Perhaps that's why there were some empty seats after the opening night's
intermission. The second act works better, especially as one begins to see
Shakespearean elements such as mixups, coincidences and even the revival of a
supposedly dead woman. It's highly unlikely that the Bard knew this play, but
it shows how some dramatic devices are universal.
Even
though the play seems overproduced in parts, Rauch succeeds in his quest to
introduce festival audiences to classics from outside the Western world.
WELCOME
HOME, JENNY SUTTER
With
the war in Iraq still festering, playwright Julie Marie Myatt deals with one of its unique
aspects in "Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter." Directed by Jessica
Thebus in its
world premiere, the play looks at a first for the United States: women coming
home from combat duty. In this case the woman is the traumatized Jenny Sutter (Gwendolyn
Mulamba), a
30-year-old Marine who lost part of a leg in Iraq and wears a prosthesis. After
being discharged from a hospital, she can't face going home to Los Angeles,
where her mother is caring for her children. Instead she goes to a bus station
where she meets Lou (Kate Mulligan), a friendly, talkative drifter trying to shed an array
of addictions. Lou is going back to Slab City, a former World War II military
base in the desert of Southern California. Slab City, now owned by the state,
has become a haven for lost souls in RVs, buses, campers and tents.
Lou
generously shares her rustic accommodations with Jenny, who says little but has
nightmares. Gradually, however, Jenny begins to open up, ever so little, thanks
to the kindness of Lou and Buddy (David Kelly), Lou's sometime lover, a
gentle, man deformed by childhood abuse but now preaching to residents (he was
ordained over the Internet). Also helpful is Cheryl (K.T. Vogt), Lou's therapist. Even the
cynical, sullen Donald (Gregory Linington) helps in his own way. Completing the cast is Cameron
Knight as Hugo,
who sells tickets at the bus station.
Richard
L. Hay's set is
minimal, starting with a cot and two benches. Lighting is by Allen Lee
Hughes, costumes
by Lynn Jeffries,
and music and sound by Paul James Prendergast. Although the pace slows in a
few places, the acting is spot-on, especially by Mulamba, who takes the
audience along on Jenny's difficult journey back to civilian life and her responsibilities.
The play will travel to Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts in July
after completing its run in Ashland. It deserves to be seen nationwide as
Americans welcome home the men and women who have been serving in Iraq.