theater
BY SUZI STEFFEN
Comedy, Tragedy
and Magic, Unifi ed
Shakespeare in Hollywood at the VLT
O
Oberon (Michael Walker) shows Puck
(Barbie Wu) the world
PHOTO COURTESY OF VERY LITTLE THEATRE
beron’s got all the lines;
they’ve charmed women
and fairies and anyone he
wishes, but his current love interest
already knows them. As a matter of
fact, they’ve been around for a while
— though not as long as he has.
The conceit of Shakespeare in
Hollywood, now playing at the Very
Little Theatre, is that Oberon, King of
the Fairies (Michael Walker), and his
helper Puck (Barbie Wu) accidentally
end up on the mid-’30s Hollywood
set of A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
directed by legendary Austrian
stage director Max Reinhart (Bill
Campbell) who fl ed his country just
before WWII.
Reinhart was real; he did direct
A Midsummer Night’s Dream in
1934. Shakespeare in Hollywood is
playwright Ken Ludwig’s loving farce
about it, commissioned for the U.K.’s
Royal Shakespeare Company in the
early years of this millennium. This
production has charm, sweetness and
a surprisingly emotional resolution.
The VLT made wise choices about
the script, the director (Chris Pinto),
the cast — a strong ensemble with some
newcomers and many familiar faces — and
the costumes. The pretty, complex set, by
Bill Campbell as well (does the man ever
sleep?), takes a while to change, but sound
designer Adrienne West fi lls that time with
era-appropriate music that makes most of
the audience want to dance.
Oberon, at fi rst furious with Puck,
soon fi nds the actress Olivia Darnell (Jessi
Cotter, who plays an Iowa farm girl with
a bit of a California accent) much to his
liking. And he and Puck end up cast in the
movie when the actual stars quit or get
injured. Obviously, right?
This is a screwball comedy with depth.
Sure, it affectionately lampoons Hollywood
and the Warner brothers, but it also shows how
an older, wiser creative type (and it’s clear
from Michael Walker’s actions and moments
of watching that he knows he’s a stand-in for
Shakespeare, Ludwig or any other maker of
meaning) can turn vulnerable when faced with
unexpected experiences and emotions.
The play gestures amusingly at theatrical
conventions — when Oberon grows angry,
lights fl ash and thunder rolls (one imagines
VLT stagehands rattling the storm-making
metal sheet from last year’s The Dresser)
— and Hollywood conventions. Puck fi nds
sunglasses, decides he wants to be a star,
fi gures out he can get a lot of women, tries to
serve his boss and also get a hot car.
Ludwig cleverly uses Aristotle’s
unities to keep the action tight, and he
also uses character conventions like the
hapless servant (Puck, in this case) who’s
a physical comedian by design or accident
and who causes some serious trouble in a
wild night of wrongly directed lust — just
as in the Shakespeare play.
36 OCTOBER 21, 2010
EUGENE WEEKLY
Nearly everyone in the cast makes a
delightful turn on the stage, from Mike
Hawkins playing a dangerous, powerful
Jack Warner who’s in love with a not-so-
bright chorus girl, Lydia Lansing (played
to the hilt by Leela Gouveia). Gouveia,
who’s much smarter in person than the
roles she’s been playing lately, makes
Lydia a fi ne counterbalance to Cotter’s
Olivia, a thoughtful and bright hard worker
who fi nds herself pulled toward a weird,
powerful, unusual older man.
What unites the screwball moments
— the farce of Lydia and reporter Louella
Parsons (Jennifer Sellers) falling for
Warner’s assistant Daryl (Max Maltz);
Paul Rhoden in drag; Lydia deciding
Shakespeare makes as much sense
backward as forward — becomes clearer
as the play progresses. Oberon and Puck
set scenes in motion; they watch; they’re
amused but don’t show it; they, like the
audience, want to see what happens
next. But Oberon must fi gure out how to
involve himself in the action, to use his
magic (he can become invisible; he can
briefl y stop time) for helping instead
of harming. Walker’s fi nal scene with
Cotter plays out with a tenderness that
gives the play heft. Campbell as Reinhart
narrates the play, giving it a framework
and another writer/director/creator layer;
and at the end, though he has stopped
mentioning the Nazis, we know what
Oberon has avoided, and what’s coming
next for the soon-to-end Dream.
The play was packed the night I
went, and no wonder: Shakespeare in
ew
Hollywood’s a rightfully hot ticket.
Shakespeare in Hollywood continues through Oct. 30 at
the Very Little Theatre. Tix at 541-3434-7751.
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