theater
BY KATIE DETTMAN AND SUZI STEFFEN
Shakespeares in the Parks
Two comedies in the fine out of doors
Twins and puppets and
music, oh my!
Puppets, visual aids and a wild
mixture of music anchor the Roving
Park Players’ outdoor presentation
of The Comedy of Errors. The
young theater company makes
Shakespeare accessible with a
stripped-down manner and nothing
to distract from the action.
Hilarious and entertaining,
the production includes several
unexpected turns, including silent
pieces (lazzi) between scenes,
which the actors perform wearing
handmade masks. One of the lazzi
incorporates a member of the
audience.
The most entertaining bit of
the play, which presents several
instances of mistaken identity, is
undoubtedly Bob Glasser’s all-
too-brief portrayal of Dr. Pinch, a
conjuring schoolmaster who wears
a white doctor’s coat, a neon pink
and green necktie and a black derby
hat. As others speak in the scene, he
repeatedly glances up at the sky and
silently speaks to a specter unseen
to the audience. He ends one of his
scenes with a throwback to The
Wizard of Oz, murmuring “What a
world!” as he melts.
Other highlights include Katelyn
Bruhn as Adriana and Kella Hanna-
Wayne as her sister, Luciana. Each
project and deliver their lines with
clarity and the right amount of
emotion – some of the best acting in
the production. The two also charm
the audience with a capella duets,
singing certain lines together or in a
round. The play is intermixed with
various forms of music, including
recorded tunes blasted from the
sound system behind the audience.
Director Vicki Harkovitch
encourages much improvisation,
and the company appreciates
this freedom. Sam Hediger as
Antipholus of Syracuse and Seth
Hansen as Dromio of Syracuse
employ synchronized slapstick to
hilarious effect.
One of the more confusing
aspects of the production is the
portrayal of the offi cer of Ephesus
by Big Rag Doll (so-called in the
program); literally a big, rag doll,
whose lines are spoken by whichever
actor happens to be holding him at
the time. Perhaps this is another way
to draw in the audience, but it seems
more distracting than anything
else. Still, this is a production you
shouldn’t miss.
Errors continues on Aug. 21 & 22 at
Campbell Senior Center’s garden, 155
High Street in Eugene, and on Aug. 23
& 24 at Island Park, 200 West B Street,
Springfi eld. For more information, visit
www.rovingparkplayers.org — Katie
Dettman
All’s well that ends with
a party
Rumor has it that Queen Elizabeth
I, after viewing Henry IV, Parts I &
II and Henry V, wanted more of the
larger than life character of Falstaff.
“Falstaff in love,” she asked of the
good ol’ Bard, who obliged his
absolute monarch with the witty,
light Merry Wives of Windsor. For
the 10th year of Free Shakespeare
in the Park, director Sharon S`elove
picked the comedy to enliven
the evenings of those who fl ock
to Amazon Community Park on
August weekends.
As a kid, I attended many plays
and musicals in parks, none of
which ever included an evening of
Shakespeare. The squirmy, whiny
kids who talked, ran off to play,
bugged their parents for more
dinner and generally ignored about
65 percent of the play might explain
my experiences — not that I resented
the kids all of the time (though I did
Yes, In Our Name
“Hardest thing you need to watch” returns
to the Leebrick
Rebecca Nachison
T
ired of Shakespeare in or out of
the park? How about an intimate,
three-part anti-war play about the
cost to women on the home front? You’ve
got it, Eugene.
Last August, a sold-out crowd at
the Lord Leebrick Theatre watched
as local actor Rebecca Nachison and
Seattle playwright Elena Hartwell staged
Hartwell’s In Our Name. That was a one-
off show, a preview before the duo took
the play to the New York Fringe Festival,
where it garnered positive reviews and
was picked up for publication by New
York Theatre Experience in the anthology
Plays and Playwrights 2008. The women,
who make up Iron Pig Presents (www.
ironpigpresents.com), then took the play
to Seattle, appearing at Live Girls! Theatre
in late January. Now it’s back in Eugene
for the weekend of Aug. 22-24, retooled to
match current events, and with its actors
hoping for more community engagement
this time around.
Hartwell and Nachison note that there
are many reasons to keep on perfoming
the play beyond the fact “we’re still in it,”
Hartwell says, where “it” equals the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq.
For one thing, a play like In Our Name
provides a different angle to deal with the
fact that our country is at war. “People
get fatigue, and they don’t want to look at
the headlines,” Hartwell says, “but that is
so different from sitting in a room with a
living person creating a character.”
For her playwright’s perspective,
she says, she did a lot of research and
interviewed a lot of veterans and their
families to make the play more real.
“I always say that a million deaths is a
statistic, but one death is a tragedy. We
are open to hearing individual stories, and
theater does that in such an electronically
unmediated way.”
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wonder if they had gotten to see the
Story Lady tell the tale to help them
understand the play ahead of time).
I didn’t entirely resent them
because, hey, it’s community theater
outside! For free! Which is fun. And
to tell the truth, I got squirmy when I
couldn’t hear the actors (Y’all! You
have no microphones! Project!),
and we defi nitely ate dinner before
intermission rolled around. But
in the midst of this good-hearted
community attempt at a complex
comedic mix of misunderstandings,
some of the actors stand out. Stuart
Phillips as Master Ford garners the
lion’s share of inter-scenic applause,
for he wisely appeals directly to the
audience and understands how to
make his character’s jealousy seem
logical instead of manic. AnnMarie
Maurer as Mistress Page provides
many a lively moment, as do two of
the other women, Danette Lamson
as Mistress Quickly and Sarah
Cassady as the Host of the Garter.
But what of our Falstaff, young
(deep breath) Joshua David Robert
Vernon Gambill? Aside from having
the most pretentious name on any
Eugene cast list, Gambill doesn’t
quite have the chops for Falstaff —
at least, not yet. The part requires
some cynical self-knowledge that
takes a few years to acquire. Still,
he performs competently, and on
the intensely hot night I attended
the production, he drew some
laughs even from the kids, who
often repeated the things he said.
Take a picnic (but save the
alcohol for after the show), take
your neighbors, take your senses
of patience and humor, and you’ll
enjoy Merry Wives. The costumes,
especially in the mad heat of
August, pretty much blow the mind,
and even if you can only hear a
portion of the play (sit as close as
you can), you’ll have a good time.
After all, the play ends with a hunt,
lots of fairies, a marriage of love
and a big party. All good things for
the summer.
ew
The Merry Wives of Windsor continues
Aug. 23 & 24 and 30 & 31 at Amazon
Community Park. Story Lady preshow at 5
pm; performances at 6 pm. — Suzi Steffen
A Merry Wife
Nachison says that even though she
doesn’t have family members serving in
Iraq, she knows that an actor has to stretch
beyond her own experience. “I see it as
part of the artist’s job. You can be an actor
because you sit in empathy and compassion
with everything around you,” she says.
Last August, Hartwell says, a lot of
people stayed after the play because “they
needed to talk.” So this year, Hartwell and
Nachison worked with various groups
and activists in Eugene to invite guests
for talkbacks after each of this weekend’s
three performances. “That was one of my
dreams,” Nachison says, “to have some
community dialogue going on.”
On Friday, Aug. 22, the talkback features
local peace activist Peg Morton and Sara
Rich, mother of Army Specialist Suzanne
Swift, who refused to redeploy to Iraq after
being sexually harrassed and assaulted.
Saturday night, those who stick around can
hear from and talk to Rich Klopfer of the
Justice Not War Coalition and Bob Watada,
father of Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused to
deploy to Iraq because he believes the war
is illegal (see our cover story from March
22, 2007). Finally, the Sunday matinee
crowd gets to speak with Bill McCollum,
who runs Hope for Our Heroes, a group
that strives to make sure veterans get the
support they need.
If you saw the play last year, Hartwell
and Nachison want you to know that it
remains relevant, partly because Hartwell
rewrote one section to make a lot more
references to Afghanistan (where, the two
emphasize, those troops that are touted as
pulled from Iraq are now going) and to the
presidential election.
Worried about the content? Hartwell
says, “I think human beings’ knee-jerk
reaction is that ‘I can’t deal with other
people’s drama,’ but when you’re in the
room with them, that compassion is there.
Human beings are compassionate if it is
asked of them.” And Nachison says that
last year, friends who thought they wanted
something “entertaining” came to see In
Our Name and were glad they did.
Hartwell remembers one of her favorite
comments, from a person in New York who
said, “It’s the hardest thing I ever needed to
watch.” —Suzi Steffen
In Our Name runs Aug. 22-24 at the Lord
Leebrick Theatre. Tix at www.lordleebrick.com
or 465-1506. Profi ts from the run will go to
Veterans for Peace.
Opening Nights
The Gin Game opens Friday, Aug.
22, at the Cottage Theatre in Cottage
Grove.
The gin game? Weren’t most of us
playing that, or its sister the gin and
tonic game, when the sun was fi ring
100-degree days at Eugene last week?
Hm. But this 1978 Pulitzer Prize-
winning play focuses on the card game,
a game of wits, a game of humiliation
and some seriously intense memories
— all set in a nursing home. Show dates
are Aug. 22-24 & 29-30. Tix at www.
cottagetheatre.org or 942-8001.
EUGENE WEEKLY AUGUST 21, 2008 39