Eugene weekly., August 20, 2009, Page 13, Image 13

Pantalone (David Kelly)
The Servant of Two Masters
At the New Theatre through Nov. 1
T
his triumph of ensemble casting and tight,
close acting serves up delight after delight.
With mastery of improvisation, comic timing
and the sheer hilarity of piling on one ridiculous
moment after another, the adapted commedia
dell’arte piece sends up the Festival’s budget
woes, the audience, the history of theater, its
own art form and so much more.
Before intermission, especially, the energy
and high spirits of the cast create an atmo-
sphere of deep, collaborative enjoyment. Mark
Bedard plays the traditional Harlequin role as
Truffaldino, a servant who decides to make extra
money — and food — by serving two masters.
Mistaken identity, cross-dressing and a damn
funny dinner scene ensue. Bedard must be in the
running for major awards, as should be direc-
tor Tracy Young and stage manager Jill Rendall.
Elijah Alexander springs blithely from playing the
king in Henry VIII to nailing the part of Florindo
here, and both David Kelly and Richard Howard
contribute compelling performances. The set
and costumes, scavenged from former shows,
make for excellent long-time audience conver-
sation pieces (and brought Servant in far, far un-
der budget). When the improv stops, some of the
energy goes out of Servant, but it’s still one of
the hottest tickets at the festival. Do not miss it.
(See my interview with director Young at blogs.
eugeneweekly.com/node/1198)
On the Elizabethan Stage through Oct. 9
L
ove costume drama? Prefer Elizabethan
clothes to any modern interpretations?
You’re on for Henry VIII. This piece can hardly
be called Shakespearean (collaborator/reviser
John Fletcher should have more credit; the lan-
guage rarely sounds like the Will we know and
This simply isn’t one of the better ones. But I
saw Quixote on a rain-drenched night, when the
OSF held the curtain for 30 minutes because of
lightning. For safety reasons the fi ght scenes and
dance scenes went off at half-speed. This is a
true spectacle, and if you enjoy puppets or never-
ending stage business with a horse, you might
make it through this newly adapted version of
one of the greatest books ever written.
Armando Durán uses a gentle touch with the
self-titled knight, letting the full weight of Quix-
ote’s nostalgia and delusional thinking spool out
for us to see. But to feel the courage, the poi-
gnance and the full power of his tale, we need
to see his ideal(ized) woman in the fl esh. For
Dulcinea, a puppet won’t do. That lack of emo-
tional connection tinges the entire evening, how-
ever well Josiah Phillips fi ts the role of Sancho
Panza or Jeffrey King plays a cruel Miguel de
Cervantes. Four lovers (Danforth Comins, Vilma
Silva, Réné Millan and Miriam Laube) demon-
strate, in a story-within-the-story, the power of
storytelling to wound as well as heal, and fi nally
some emotion other than humor or horror enters
the stage. Still, for experimentation and stage-
craft, puppetry and general spectacle, this is a
fi ne choice.
The Countess of Rossillion (Dee Maaske)
All’s Well That Ends Well
At the New Theatre through Nov. 1
The King's Company
Equivocation
At the Bowmer Theatre through Oct. 31
I
n a season that’s absolutely superb for the
men of the OSF company, Equivocation, a
world premiere by Bill Cain, provides yet another
opportunity for the guys to bite into their roles.
Cain controls this world of power, art and word-
play, and OSF Artistic Director Bill Rauch proves
his range by directing Music Man and this work
during the same season.
Equivocation begins in a post-Elizabeth world,
with James I (John Tufts) holding the throne and
his spymaster Robert Cecil (Jonathan Haugen in
a towering performance) putting the screws to
whomever he thinks will help secure the polity.
Catholics don’t have a chance in this England,
and a plot to blow up Parliament has just been
uncovered. The King writes a play (or, more likely,
a treatment) about this episode, and Cecil com-
missions William Shakespeare — here known
as Shag, played by Anthony Heald — to revise
and polish the King’s work. But what is truth
and what is a lie for political gain? Shakespeare
wonders, vacillates and endangers his company.
All of the male (OSF) actors switch roles, playing
company members, soldiers, torturers and tor-
tured, and they’re uniformly strong.
Where are the women? There’s a gesture, an
attempt, to show a woman and defl ect feminist
criticism by including Shag’s daughter Judith
(Christine Albright), whose role as company
laundress doesn’t prevent her from saving the
company from time to time. But Equivocation
could be stronger without this fakey, sentimental
thread.
Very nearly a great play with brilliant per-
formances and humorous, meaty, thoughtful
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anforth Comins has played many Shake-
spearean roles in Ashland, but neither as
Orlando nor Coriolanus nor Cassio did he fi nd as
rich as role as he plays in All’s Well. He makes
Bertram — a privileged, arrogant liar and misog-
ynist who attempts to deceive his mother and the
King but somehow ends up a military leader and
a happy husband, son and father — convincing
and even sympathetic.
This splendid production with its additional
Clown (Armando Durán) deserved its planned
(but cancelled) run in China. To Director Amanda
Dehnert, scenic designer Christopher Acebo and
all of the designers and crew, deep bows of
appreciation. And the cast! From Emily Sophia
Knapp as a sparkling proto-feminist in solidar-
ity with Bertram’s betrayed wife to G. Valmont
Thomas as a military offi cer and nobleman to
John Tufts as goofy Parolles, it’s charming. Dee
Maaske, playing Bertram’s mother, the Count-
ess of Rossillion, turns in a steely, generous
portrait of an elderly woman whose hopes for
the younger generation don’t blind her to their
faults. Helena, Bertram’s wife, proves too much
of a challenge for Kjerstine Rose Anderson —
but no matter, the entirety of the show’s excel-
lence outweighs this one casting fl aw.
Beatrice (Robynn Rodriguez) &
Don Pedro (Peter Macon)
Much Ado About Nothing
On the Elizabethan Stage through Oct. 11
uch Ado might be one of the most enjoy-
able of all Shakespeare comedies, at least
for a modern audience; Beatrice and Benedick’s
bickering remains gender-equal, and equally
amusing, throughout the entire script. On the
other hand, it’s got the horridly patriarchal Hero-
Claudio bit where the men decry and abuse a
woman for not being a virgin. Bleah, right?
Only, in this production, Juan Rivera LeB-
ron makes Claudio believable and sympathetic,
which changes the feel. David Kelly, somewhat
… mature … for Benedick, makes a game run
at it and, as usual, earns many laughs; ditto for
Robynn Rodriguez as Beatrice. But, despite the
generally strong execution, nothing quite sparks
in this WWII-era production. And many actors,
the night I attended, seemed to need serious vo-
cal amplifi cation.
Points to Peter Macon for a strong per-
formance as Don Pedro and Tony DeBruno for
keeping Dogberry’s antics reined in and there-
fore tolerable — and to the scene shop for the
superb pool. Fun, but not the best Much Ado or
the OSF can offer.
M
DAVID COOPER
JENNY GRAHAM
D
JENNY GRAHAM
Henry V|||
writing, Equivocation moves (cast and all) to the
Seattle Rep in mid-November.
JENNY GRAHAM
Queen Katherine (Vilma Silva) & King
Henry VIII (Elijah Alexander)
love), but Henry VIII is the most solid of the three
outdoor plays. That’s often due to the stunning
performance of Vilma Silva as Queen Katherine
of Aragon, supported ably by Anthony Heald as
Cardinal Wolsey.
Director John Sipes keeps our focus on three
main characters — Katherine, Wolsey and Henry
(Elijah Alexander, whose Henry is a dissipated,
powerful man with a roving eye) — but the sup-
porting cast, including Michael Elich, Derrick
Lee Weeden, David Kelly, Gregory Linington and
Richard Howard, brings more political nuance to
the tale. You might want to watch Anne of the
Thousand Days or catch up on your Tudors so
the political actors are clear in your mind.
Tudor England is a man’s world, and mostly
Henry VIII is a play about men, but Silva shows
how very much this costs women. Her Queen
Katherine is magnifi cent and doomed (as is her
replacement). Ironically, at the end of the play,
we know its true thrust: toward a world domi-
nated by a woman, the baby girl whose name
is Elizabeth.
by Suzi Steff en
JENNY GRAHAM
JENNY GRAHAM
Oregon Shakespeare Festival Reviews
Quixote (Armando Duran) and Rocinante
(James Jesse Peck)
Don Quixote
On the Elizabethan Stage through Oct. 10
A
meditation on the act of creation so bold
as to call down the power of the Inquisi-
tion, Don Quixote has room for endless retellings.
EUGENE WEEKLY AUGUST 20, 2009 13