Ashland: a treat for all Ages

THE WEST’S THEATER MECCA:

THE OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

Give us the luxuries of life,

And we will dispense with its necessities.

John L. Motley

I admit it. I am a theater junkie; and I get my fix at least twice a year at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. The festival was established in 1935 and is among the oldest and largest professional regional repertory theatre companies in the country. It lasts eight months from late February until the end of October offering eleven plays, four by Shakespeare and seven by classic and contemporary playwrights in three state-of-the-art spaces. Playgoers from all over the world flock to its stages and in 2007, attendance topped 400,000. I have been taking that six hour drive up I-5 for the past twenty years and not once have I been disappointed. While I do not always love all of the productions, I am mentally stimulated and dramatically satisfied after every trip.

This year is no exception. I drove to Ashland the beginning of April and managed to cram three plays into two days. The production highlight for me was August Wilson’s FENCES. This is the story of Troy Maxson and his family in 1957 in Pittsburgh, PA. Even though segregation practices were starting to come under legal attack in 1950, attitudes were unchanged. This play captures the disillusionment of African Americans during that decade despite desegregated schools and laws that mask the prejudice still rampant in our society.

This play is far more than a study of Black America’s milieu. It is a family story that touches us all. Every character in Fences has his own dreams he cannot realize and all of them discover that they themselves are the ones block those dreams. The story, though it is driven by the racial prejudice blacks suffer in the country, is the story of everyone’s conflict between personal needs and family obligations. When Rose, Troy’s wife discovers that he has impregnated another woman, she tells him that he has not just betrayed her love, he has broken the promise they made to each other and he explains,” I done locked myself into a pattern trying to take care of you that I forgot all about myself.”

Wilson’s point is that families must do exactly that to survive. The family unit is more important than the needs of the individuals within it. In the fifties, this is the way we all thought. I am not certain that view is as universal today.

Troy’s best friend, Bono explains the challenges the characters face in the story when he says, “Some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in. Rose wants to hold on to you all.”

The casting, the directing, the entire production is superb and once seen, the play will haunt you forever. “Here in America, whites have a particular view of blacks,” says August Wilson. “I think my plays offer them a different way to look at black America.”

No one paints a better picture of being black in America than August Wilson. Yet, I did not feel that the conflicts this work explores were unique to that race. They were the challenges everyone must resolve if the family unit is to survive.

WELCOME HOME JENNY SUTTER was one of those plays that had important things to say but didn’t say them very well. Author Julie Marie Myatt says, “I hope this play offers some solace for those who have suffered through war and for all of us who sit on the sidelines, wondering what to say.”

Gwendolyn Mulamba as Jenny Sutter just misses her character by a hair. David Kelly and Kate Mulligan are right on the mark. The two of them carried the plot forward for me and made me believe in what I was seeing. “The drama of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter is not the horrifying familiar drama of the field of battle,” says director Jessica Theabus. “It is the drama that unfolds in the wake of battle as one wounded soldier returns home from Iraq.”

For me, the point could have been expressed more strongly. Still, this play has a message that cannot be repeated often enough. The people who have given their limbs, their sanity, and their very lives to defend this country are our national responsibility. It is our duty to do all we can to mend the rift their loyalty has caused in their lives.

THE CLAY CART was the most extravagant and least impressive play I saw this year. It is an Indian social comedy with an unlikely mix of characters portrayed by the company’s finest actors. Michael Hume can bring any role to life and indeed he does when he plays Maitareya. Dee Maaske never ceases to amaze me and Tyrone Wilson is superb. For this viewer, I found the plot too predictable, the action too foolish and the conflict not very conflicting. That said, the production is gorgeous. “May you feast your eyes and ears on this dramatic spectacle that has been a nonstop joy for all of us at the festival to prepare for you,” said Direct Bill Rauch.

Perhaps for them, but not so for many of the viewers who, like I, walked out after the first act.

Ashland is never a waste of time. It is filled with delightful shops; thrilling galleries and interesting people who love to talk theater and ponder the points made on the stage. The Shakespeare productions are always superb, the other plays thoughtfully chosen and beautifully executed. You can find out more about the 2008 season at www.osfashland.org. Do not deprive yourself of this theatrical experience. At its best, the plays are sublime, at worst, they are simply wonderful.