The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has opened its 2001 season with three hits and a disappointment. Unfortunately, the disappointment is "The Tempest," the only Shakespeare play to appear on the schedule until the outdoor Elizabethan Theatre opens in June. "The Tempest" plays in the Angus Bowmer Theatre, along with "Life Is a Dream" and "Enter the Guardsman." "The Trip to Bountiful" is featured in the intimate Black Swan. Here's a rundown on those productions:
Although Penny Metropulos, associate artistic director, has directed some memorable productions for the festival, "The Tempest" is not one of them. Her idea of casting a woman, the excellent Demetra Pittman, as Prospero and playing the character as a woman rather than a man works well enough, but it doesn't add any new insights to the play. She takes that idea a step further, however, by turning Prospero's usurping brother, Antonio, into a usurping sister, Antonia (Linda Alper). This switch allows Metropulos to insert a sexual element into Antonia's relationship with Sebastian (James Newcomb, making a welcome return to Ashland), brother of Alonso, king of Naples (a bland Tony DeBruno), but again it's not a new insight.
More problematic is the casting of Cristofer Jean as Ariel. Although men have played the role before, Jean is androgynous, tall and somewhat ungainly. Towering over Pittman and wearing an outfit (costumes by Christina Poddubiuk) that looks vaguely Hindi, Jean also doesn't sing particularly well (music by Ralph Towner). On the other hand, John Pribyl is a dynamic Caliban, more human than monster. He energizes the play whenever he's on stage. His scenes with the drunken Trinculo (U. Jonathan Toppo) and Stephano (G. Valmont Thomas) involve some lively clowning, though the latter two can get carried away. Among the other characters, Linda K. Morris as Miranda and Gregory D. Linington as Ferdinand are pleasant but unengaging as the young lovers. Richard Farrell seems out of his league as the good-hearted but doddering Gonzalo.
William Bloodgood's stark landscape with its bare trees erases any sense of the exotic on the island. Lighting by Robert Peterson and sound by Jeremy J. Lee are effective.
One of the strengths of this production is the exceptionally well-spoken text, an Ashland hallmark. Another is that despite some of the performances, Metropulos and Pittman keep a clear focus on Prospero's transformation from seeking revenge to meting out forgiveness and forgoing her magic in favor of her responsibilities as the ruler of Milan.
The festival has purposely teamed "The Tempest" with "Life is a Dream" and "Enter the Guardsman" because of similar themes of the creative process, illusion and reality, Libby Appel, artistic director, said at a press conference during the opening weekend. Unlike "The Tempest," though, this production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's "Life Is a Dream" is both memorable and magical, thanks to guest director Laird Williamson, who has adapted the 1635 Spanish classic for modern American audiences.
Williamson has a gift for visually powerful staging such as American Conservatory Theater's annual "A Christmas Carol" and the festival's "Pericles" a few seasons ago. He uses that gift again in "Life Is a Dream," creating a stirring opening scene that involves a mighty horse and the various geometric shapes of gray screens used by the ensemble throughout the production (scenic design by Robert Blackman). The horse carries a woman of Muskovy, Rosaura (the forthright Vilma Silva), who has entered Polonia dressed as a man to seek revenge on a duke, Astolfo (played by Jonathan Adams through Feb. 27, now by Armando Durán), who wronged her.
The main thread of the story, however, focuses on Segismundo (Kevin Kenerly in his best performance to date with the festival), son of the king of Polonia (Richard Howard). Segismundo has been kept in a cave since infancy because his father feared a prophecy that the boy would create chaos in the kingdom. Now a young man, Segismundo is tended by Clotaldo (Jeffrey King), whose loyalties are torn between the king and Segismundo. During the course of the play, Segismundo is drugged and returned to his father's court. When he does indeed cause chaos, he is drugged again, taken back to his cave and told that his experiences in the court were all a dream. Further complications ensue as forgiveness and second chances come to the fore.
Like Shakespeare, Calderon includes a fool figure, Bocazas, to provide comic relief and point out some of the foolishness of the other characters. Robert Vincent Frank is delightful in the role, lending his fine singing voice to songs by Lee Stametz. Costumes by Deborah M. Dryden and lighting by Robert Peterson add to the magic of this production.
"Enter the Guardsman," a musical adaptation of Ferenc Molnár's "The Guardsman," also has some elements of fantasy and forgiveness. With music by Craig Bohmler, lyrics by Marion Adler and book by Scott Wentworth, "Enter the Guardsman" is set in an early 20th century Viennese theater where a husband and wife acting team, married only six months, face a crisis in their relationship. The Actor (Michael Elich) fears his wife, the Actress (Suzanne Irving), has become bored with their marriage. To test her fidelity, he begins to send her roses anonymously. When they pique her interest, he pretends to leave town. He then disguises himself as a Viennese guardsman and arranges a rendezvous with her. In the process, they both gain insights into how to maintain a happy marriage.
It's a trifle of a plot, but guest director Peter Amster takes a light-handed approach to the work, never allowing his actors to become overwrought. Hence Elich and Irving create characters who are real, likable people despite the characters' tendency toward the dramatic, as befits theatrical stars. They also sing well, as does Richard Farrell as the Playwright, who lends a sophisticated, debonair air to his mission as both a narrator and the Actor's confidante. They're backed by a charming ensemble of backstage workers: Linda Alper as a Dresser, David Kelly as a Wigsmaster, Christine Williams as a Wardrobe Mistress and Charlie Kimball as an Assistant Stage Manager.
The five-member orchestra is led by Laurie Anne Hunter, who also plays piano. The flexible backstage set is by Daniel Ostling, the handsome period costumes by Galina Solovyeva and complementary lighting by Dawn Chiang. As one audience member said at opening night, "It's fluff, but isn't it fun?" Indeed it is.
A light touch also pays off in Libby Appel's direction of "The Trip to Bountiful," Horton Foote's delicate drama about an old woman's determination to go back home. Casting the estimable Dee Maaske as the main character, Carrie Watts, also pays off, as does the rest of the casting.
The play opens in the late '40s in a tiny, three-room apartment in Houston, where Carrie has lived with her son, Ludie (Michael J. Hume), and his wife, Jessie Mae (Robin Goodrin Nordli), for 15 years. Ludie does his best to keep the peace between his mother and wife, who frequently get on each other's nerves. Carrie's health isn't good, but she longs to return to her home in the tiny town of Bountiful. She knows it's probably a wreck, but she needs to reconnect with the place where she grew up, where she knew both joy and sorrow. She needs to recover some of the peace and dignity she has lost since moving in with Ludie and Jessie Mae. Jessie Mae, who's mainly interested in shopping and going to the beauty parlor and movies, has little patience with Carrie. She can't stand the way Carrie sings hymns and runs about the apartment. On the other hand, she and Ludie are dependent upon Carrie's monthly pension check to make ends meet, especially since Ludie has just returned to work after being ill for two years.
Carrie does manage to sneak out of the house and get on a bus to Harrison, the nearest town, thanks to some helpful strangers. And she does get to her home in Bountiful, where she finds what she was looking for, including the strength to go back to Houston with Ludie and Jessie Mae. They, too seem to have gained some peace from her trip.
Maaske is marvelous as Carrie, whom we first meet rocking in a chair and singing her favorite hymn while she gazes out the window on a moonlit night (evocative lighting by Dawn Chiang). Throughout the play, she reveals other facets of Carrie, a woman who knows what she needs to do to survive. Hume is patient and long-suffering as the caring, soft-spoken Ludie, torn between his mother and his wife. Nordli crafts Jessie Mae as a seemingly superficial woman whose dreams have perhaps been frustrated by her situation yet who remains loyal to Ludie. The supporting cast also is noteworthy: Julie Oda, Brad Whitmore and Christopher DuVal.
Richard L. Hay creatively uses only a few set pieces for the scenery. Constanza Romero's costumes are period-perfect: seamed stockings for Jessie Mae, hats and gloves for the women when they venture into public, and an inexpensive suit for Ludie. It's a gem of a production in the popular Black Swan, which is hosting its final productions this season. The festival is building a new small theater that is scheduled to open in 2002.