Oregon Shakespeare Festival — Attraction in Ashland

4 adults, one a novice and three veteran theatergoers give their reviews...

RICHARD III June 3 2014

Direction, Scenery and Lighting good. Sound: new sound system had a couple glitches that were quickly solved. Sound quality was excellent all the way to the back row, where we sat. Costumes: below expected standard set by the Festival. R3 wore an ugly 'hair shirt' in act 1. Too many hatless actors in a time where headgear indicated your status. Perhaps showing the well-made wigs was the idea? Half the costumes looked designed for the show, the rest were pulled from old stock?? Fake fur trim was very poorly cut and applied: yes we had binoculars.

Deaf signing a speaking role was very intrusive, disrupting the flow of the play. Could have accepted this in a modern play, or Shakespeare set in a modern time, as current production of COMEDY OF ERRORS. One of our group had seen THE MUSIC MAN, a musical where a singing role was signed! How bizarre ! It is a real detriment in a Shakespearean style period production.

How disappointing this was for a first time Shakespeare experience...the other 3 of us could at least put it in context of years of viewing.

rate it 4 1/2 stars, out of 6

THE TEMPEST June 2014 Direction: good. I've seen Tony Taccone's work many times. Curious about his choices for Prospero. Adding in the four 'spirits' made the performance much more interesting...adding movement to the spare set, they were wonderful. Scenery: minimalist abstract shapes. Variety provided by the floor opening up for various entrances and effects. Not our favorite type of set, but it mostly worked. Lighting: Interesting use of old filament-style light fixtures hanging from cords. We think the rest of the lighting tried to make the most of the bare set, and did a fine job. Costumes: We don't think Anita Yavich and the costume shop had time to finish the show. What other explanation could there be for what Prospero, Miranda, and Caliban wore? Prospero, a 60's beachcomber in a macrame vest. Miranda a 1930's depression era housewife. Caliban in a diaper. Embarassing choices. The four 'spirits' and Ariel were very good costumes, (although her skirt fabric was drooping over the underlying support structure.) The shipwrecked men all were splendid in their period clothes.

Why would we recommend this to anyone? Fantastic performances by Kate Hurster as Ariel, Wayne Carr as Caliban. The rest of the cast was fine, very satisfying for us. So why was Prospero so bland? No emotional journey for him from anger/revenge to forgiveness. No sense of majesty, magic, power. The final speech was just thrown away! We've enjoyed the acting craft of Denis Arndt before, so imagine our disappointment at this portrayal.

3 stars out of 6

COCOANUTS June 2014

At last, a performance that met our expectations for OSF production values. Scenery: Richard Hay always delivers the goods. Wonderful pastel set perfectly housed the action. Lighting: well done Marcus Doshi. Costumes: delightfully populated the colorful set. This is the excellence we expect of OSF. We decided that the costume choices for Mrs. Potter and Polley Potter were meant to show that rich folk can have bad taste too.

The entire cast was well chosen...excellent performances by all. The improvised bits really had the audience roaring with laughter. Perhaps OSF might consider an original Marx brothers Shakespearean play...consult your dramaturg...could be comedic gold here.

6...

This past week I attended three plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival - Two Trains Running (August Wilson); My Fair Lady (Lerner and Loewe) ; and Cymbeline (Shakespeare). First some general comments - all were well acted; the stage/sets were quite good; production values were excellent. However, and this seems to become more and more common at the OSF, for reasons that I am unable to fathom, the plays tend to go on far too long. Each of the productions extended over three hours, and while My Fair Lady generally runs to that length, the other two plays were deliberately made to go on and on, again, for no apparent reason. I fear that the OSF can rest on its laurels and its production values to ensure that people keep passing through the doors for its high-priced tickets. The houses were packed each night. These audiences are extremely uncritical. They would give a standing ovation for two actors who merely belched on stage. They enjoy spectacle rather than substance. Perhaps by cramming more and more non-essentials into its productions, and drawing the time out for no good reason and certainly no dramatic reason, OSF can say that it gives its audience their money's worth.

Two Trains Running - not one of Wilson's better plays. It is preachy, predictable, with a cliched ending. The actors handled their roles well, although I wished that one had projected his voice better, as he was hard to hear much of the time. The play was staged with excessive deliberateness, and it dragged, at times quite seriously.

My Fair Lady - not the real musical, but rather a music hall, Brechtian version of this most incredible show. No orchestra, rather two on-stage pianos (very well played). But this is a show in which orchestration increases and solidifies the dynamics, so I missed the orchestration. The device grew on me, but it was never fully satisfactory. And some of the songs were "re-engineered," not necessarily an improvement. The major roles were well-acted and well-sung. It was quite enjoyable to hear Henry Higgins actually reach musical notes. This production, too, tended to drag, particularly near the end, when Henry encounters Eliza at his mother's house. But the music is so fantastic - it has stood the test of its 50 years - that overall, this show was quite enjoyable.

Cymbeline - in general, the production was quite good, considering that this is one of Shakespeare's least performed plays. It is one of his least performed plays for a reason - but like most of the lesser-known plays, it can be tightened into a cogent and relatively interesting story. OSF managed to weave a good story out of the text, but then overloaded the play with extraneous "creative" matter, such as the appearance of multiple ghosts. They added little and slowed down the forward march of the production. For the most part, the acting was good, to very good. The set was quite grand and imaginative. But as with the other plays, Cymbeline stretched beyond reasonable limits, made quite a bit longer by having one of the major characters, Cymbeline, acted by a mute, who had to have all speech interactions signed. And while the actor playing Cymbeline had effective gestures and presence, the flailing of hands that accompanied his and the other actors speech was a huge distraction as well as time consuming.

But as long as Ashland's audiences make no demands upon the OSF, there is little prospect for improvement...

DON’T BELIEVE 5 STAR REVIEWS! OSF SUCKS! Original mission: bring Shakespeare to masses. OSF lost its way. Got woke went broke. They ask the state for handouts. But plays are Bait & Switch. Bard cancelled, saw really lame, amateur, high school quality off-broadway play. Costumes looked like they were thrown together, acting mediocre at best, singing was karaoke quality, and I’ve seen better dancing at clubs. Also, before the play, had to endure a lecture about native Americans. If we wanted to be preached at, we would go to church. If we wanted to hear guilt trips, we’d spend the weekend with our parents. Really miss the original, intelligent, Shakespeare-centered OSF. Hopefully they’ll get rid of their diversity department and DEI pandering. Here’s a clue: Replacing all the white people with POC doesn’t make it better, it just foments more division and racism. Sadly, looking at the staff roster for OSF, they still have a Director of “Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Accessibility”. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are the latest euphemisms for using race and gender quotas to assure proportional or even reparatory representation. Now we know why OSF is so bad this season: skin color is more important than talent or good acting. "The play's the thing" but Will Is now ignored for political correctness and leftist, BLM woke ideology. Shakespeare’s plays have been replaced by Ibram X. Kendi’s propaganda. That is not good for either the artists or for the plays, or for the town of Ashland. To quote King Lear, “If that the heavens do not their visible spirits Send quickly down to tame these vile offences, It will come, Humanity must perforce prey on itself, Like monsters of the deep.”…….. ……..Postscript: we’ve been Democrats for over 50 years, voted Obama. That said, we don’t agree with the far left pushing its agenda on everyone else. Casting should be based on TALENT not on genitalia or skin color. Identity politics is dividing, us not bringing us together. You want the truth? Watch Matt Walsh's “Am I Racist?” for the real DEI...