Shakespeare Mountain
Why magical Ashland is still a thrill ride for theater lovers
Whether it's in the bookstores full of texts on Elizabethan England or in
the history of theater, or in the restaurant whose menu uses the Bard to
illustrate an eggplant burger, or in the hotel called the Stratford Inn,
William Shakespeare's ghost haunts everything in Ashland.
For eight months out of the year, this Rogue Valley town of 18,000 just south
of Medford is a theater lover's theme park, thriving on the energy generated
by the 64-year-old Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
The 11-play season opened last weekend and runs through Oct. 31.
Ashland has yet to succumb to the overpowering kitsch that scars tourism-reliant
towns such as Solvang, in Santa Barbara County. There's a charm to a burg whose
Shakespeare fixation extends to an All's Well Vitamins or a Puck's Doughnuts near
an espresso stand, a pan-Asian eatery or the toasty English Pub such as the
Black Sheep. From the OSF banners that line Ashland's Main Street to Footlights,
a shop that specializes in theater posters, to OSF's own Tudor Guild Gift
Shop, which has a treasure trove of background material on the season's plays,
Ashland doesn't deny its character, which is how the granola crowd, the AARP
members and the theater fans like it.
"There's a kind of bucolic Utopia about this place," say Tony Taccone, the
Berkeley Repertory Theatre artistic director who has worked at OSF four times in
the past five seasons. "It's a small town, and there's something nice about it:
You're here and you hang out with people, which is something that we just don't
seem to have the time to do back home."
If the town has become a bit self-conscious of its appeal, it is in part because
of the national attention it has achieved. Time magazine last year named the OSF
production of Lillian Garrett-Groag's "The Magic Fire," which played at the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., last year, one of the 10 best plays of '98.
OSF won a regional Tony Award in 1983, and its stature keeps growing. It broke
its attendance record last year, selling 345,147 tickets.
Approximately 50,000 of those tickets were bought by visitors from the Bay
Area, according to OSF figures.
Theater professionals, many with Bay Area ties, come to Ashland to work with
one of the few true repertory companies left in the United States. Taccone says
Ashland's talent pool allows him to work with a cast of 20 or 30 actors, something
that is rarely feasible in a regional theater like Berkeley Rep.
Another attraction is the diverse menu of plays. Besides the four Shakespeare
productions, OSF offers:
Four of the 1999 productions opened last weekend, including Taccone's
production of "Othello." Current performances are in the Angus Bowman
and Black Swan theaters, both indoors; the outdoor Elizabethan stage doesn't
come into use until the summer.
The rest of the season will be "Romersholm," by Henrik Ibsen, which opens
April 3 and runs through Oct. 31; "Seven Guitars," by August Wilson,
April 24-Sept. 19; "Much Ado About Nothing," by Shakespeare, June18-Oct.
10; "Henry IV, Part II," by Shakespeare, June 19-Oct. 8; "The Three
Musketeers," June 20-Oct. 9; "Tongue of a Bird," by McLaughlin, July
10-Oct. 31; "Pericles," by Shakespeare, July 31-Oct. 30.
Here's a look at the festival so far.
"CHICAGO," by Maurine Watkins (through Oct. 30, Angus Bowmer Theatre)
-- Don't expect Chita Rivera. This "Chicago" is the 1926 comedy that inspired
both the John Kander-Fred Ebb musical "Chicago" and the Ginger Rogers movie
"Roxie Hart."
What they all have in common is their scathing, on-the-money indictment of the
media's fascination with scandal. In the original "Chicago's" case, the
media's complicity in acquitting a murderer becomes a source of comedy.
Unfortunately, Kenneth Albers' direction of the farce over-amplifies
everything comedic, from murderess Roxie Hart's Pavlovian hysterics to lawyer
Billy Flynn's slick-as-an-oil-spill defense tactics. The broadsides are done
at the expense of any real commentary on scandal seekers.
Catherine Lynn Davis (she was in last season's "The Comedy of Errors" here) plays
Roxie as if she were a guest on "Jerry Springer." Delivering a Southern accent
that begs comparisons to Holly Hunter's, Davis becomes a bouncy, shoulder-swiveling
camera junkie who devours her newfound attention. Flynn, as portrayed by Bill
Geisslinger ("Les Blancs"), is the opportunistic attorney whose need for the
spotlight is as intense as his love of flashy suits. If there's such a thing
as refined sleaziness, Geisslinger's Flynn is the paradigm.
As the play's narrator, Tony De Bruno plays reporter Jake Callahan as the
super-cynic in cahoots with the entire legal system. Like the narrative from
a pulp novel, his ongoing commentary is enlightening, stylized and a tad
overbearing.
"EL PASO BLUE," by Octavio Solis (through June 26, at the Black Swan)
-- This greek tragedy disguised as a borderlands country-blues cabaret seems
to have something in common with all three of the other productions that opened
last weekend. Like "Othello," it deals with a culture clash of a married
couple; like "The Good Person of Szechuan," it features lots of Brechtian
flourishes; and like "Chicago," it's an over-the-top comedy about a group of
less-than-savory characters.
What sets "El Paso Blue" apart is its frayed beauty, its ability to find a
glimmer in the dust like a prospector finds a gold nugget in silt. Alejandro
and pal Duane (Thom Rivera, Ray Porter) are petty thieves, Al's wife Sylvie
(Linda Halaska) is a pathetic drunk, and Al's father, Jefe, is a man drowning
in his own bile: But together, under Timothy Bond's direction, they create
a passionate, soaring chorus.
Solis' nuanced script and the sharp, pathos-laden performances make their stroll
through this emotional netherworld an epic journey.
Working from the bed of a pickup parked under a freeway, singer-guitarist
Michael "Hawkeye" Herman is a Greek chorus as it might be embodied by Rambling
Jack Elliott. Halaska's Sylvie is a hard-as-nails former third runner-up in
the Miss Texas pageant, a vinegary woman who finally achieves a state of grace
when she finds love from her husband's father. Porter ("A Midsummer Night's
Dream"), as the sidekick with a metal plate in his head that allows him to
pick up radio signals, is a riot as the good-for-nothing but well-intentioned
redneck.
"THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHUAN," by Brecht (through July 11, Sept. 21-Oct.
31, Bowmer) -- What a treat! Last year when everyone short of the Teletubbies
celebrated the 100th anniversary of Brecht's birthday, something was almost
forgotten: The man was a great playwright.
Although loaded with the sort of flourishes we have come to call Brechtian
-- as in "Threepenny Opera" actors sum up the show by addressing the audience
at the play's end -- "Good Person" remains a playful piece that's both
existential and accessible. Searching for a good person, the three gods played
by Robert Vincent Frank, Suzanne Irving and David Kelly are whimsical
immortals, as amused by a bouncing beach ball as they are by the antics
of humans. And Shen Te (BW Gonzales) is a former prostitute who finds that
no matter how hard she tries to live the good life, obstacles land in her path.
Gonzales ("Midsummer") plays a woman who must disguise herself as a man in
order to play hardball with opportunistic friends and cutthroat business
associates. Under the direction of Penny Metropulos, she creates one of the
festival's most enduring sights: When Shen Te becomes pregnant, she continues
to fool the world with a suit and mustache, a portlier version of the little
scrapper of a businessman, Shui Ta. This new adaptation is by Douglas
Langworthy.
"OTHELLO," by Shakespeare (through Oct. 31, Bowmer) -- With the
striking imagery that we expect from a Taccone production, "Othello"
becomes a muscular yet festering piece about the inability of love to
conquer all. Although the production includes a wonderfully thuggish Iago
(Anthony Heald), Taccone ("Pentecost") has put the emphasis on the title
character, played by Derrick Lee Weeden.
With a booming voice, a battle-scarred intensity and tautness that makes him
seem like Worf the Klingon, Weeden harnesses the paranoia and pathological
anger of the misled Othello. But Weeden's controlled portrayal is so
externalized, he seems out of sync rather than highlighted.
When his Othello chews on the possibility that his wife, Desdemona (Amy Cronise),
has been unfaithful, Weeden's angst-addled shadow -- projected onto the wall
thanks to the wonderfully moody lighting by Peter Maradudin -- at times
becomes more engaging than the writhing actor himself.
Heald, a two-time Tony nominee perhaps best known for his performance as the
head of the asylum in the movie "Silence of the Lambs," plays Iago like a
clever street tough. He sows seeds of doubt wherever he treads while
reveling in his machinations. Cronise as Desdemona is a bland portrait of
innocence who is at her best when her character is under the microscope.
With walls made from wooden slats, scenic designer William Bloodgood's set
recalls a Japanese castle from an Akira Kurosawa movie. The set also includes
a rectangular pool in the floor where, in Weeden's best scene, Othello nearly
drowns Iago. And when covered over with Plexiglas, it allows Heald to
create the illusion of walking on water.