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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 12, 2017)
July 12, 2017 Page 13 Beyond White Culture c ontinued from p age 9 better life in a U.S. culture which they experience as alien and hos- tile. Here Medea is a young un- documented immigrant who sews piecework for a pittance out of her home, and trusts her husband Jason to fight his way to a better life for their family. Their border crossing has left her traumatized and afraid to leave their little home in Boyle Heights, while Jason appears better equipped to play by new rules that seem to re- ward cunning, ambition, and sac- rifice. But at what cost? This production, which I’ve seen several times and hope to see again in Portland, is devastat- ing in its depiction of how those at the margins are often subtly pushed to turn on each other to compete for the scraps that op- pression affords them. Alfaro captures so poignantly the trauma and desperation that commonly characterizes the immigrant ex- perience, and the countless ways in which being othered chips away at one’s identity, seeding a sense of desperation that can lead a good person to make choices he would never have considered. Medea (embodied with wrench- ing, prophetic honesty by Sabina Zuniga Varela) is the main trag- ic heroine here, but she is not the only one; all the characters hold in these portrayals com- plexities of goodness and moral failure that are the natural result of pressure to confirm to new rules. The dilemma creeps into their language, as they constantly process the loss of a former way of life and the new customs that first confound and then convince them of the need for selfishness and greed. It’s the American way. Director Juliette Carillo and her marvelous cast and creative team will move this remarkable production to Portland in No- vember. At a time when our ideas of immigrant and refugee experi- ence and our analysis of the pres- sures on the marginalized desper- ately need grounding in deeper reality, this production provides a necessary re-frame. It’s worth prioritizing. The remaining OSF season offers many reasons to prioritize a trip to Ashland as well. For a start, a wonderful production of “Julius Caesar” runs all season through October. Director Sha- na Cooper has approached this timeless tale of political intrigue from the standpoint of the toll which cycles of violence exact on the human body and soul. Shakespeare’s history play is built around power plays and shifting allegiances and manipu- lation of public opinion that will feel familiar; this production uses movement to emphasize how such shifts are ultimately inev- itable and relentless. Fight cho- reography moves between literal and metaphorical, until eventual- ly actors are killed and rise again moments later to resume fighting. An excellent multiracial cast con- veys the stress on their bodies with such visceral force that I felt breathless even watching them. One leaves with an appropriate recognition that war, including the merely political kind, de- stroys in more ways than we usu- ally recognize. A fine production of “Shake- speare in Love” also runs all season through October. Riffing off the Academy Award-winning Hollywood screenplay of the same name, this stage adaptation offers an opportunity to see a tal- ented and very diverse cast play and sing and goof on the joy of making theater and on the im- portance and joy and inspiration of pursuing love wherever and however it materializes. It is per- haps the most broadly appealing of all the shows on offer this sea- son, packed with deftly-executed comic bits and an uncomplicated warm heart. The world premiere of “Han- nah and the Dread Gazebo,” by Korean-American playwright Jiehae Park, offers an entirely different lens on immigrant ex- perience. As Hannah prepares to take the exams that will make her a board-certified neurologist, her grandmother’s death prompts her to travel to South Korea, where her parents have returned after many years living in the U.S. The play shifts between the perspec- tives of Hannah and her brother (who live in the U.S. but are ac- customed to feeling alien both at home and in South Korea), their photo by J enny g raham A Korean-American family offers a window on the immigrant experi- ence in “Hannah and the Dread Gazebo,” one of the stories of people of color written by people of color now playing at the Oregon Shake- speare Festival in Ashland. parents, whose experiences of alienation weigh on them in an entirely different way, and vari- ous mystical South Korean char- acters. The Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea provides a potent manifestation of other wounds that arise and lay unresolved in families like Han- nah’s. Park’s play, nimbly directed by Chay Yew, explores questions of identity, loss, and generation- al differences in a non-linear and sometimes poetic way that gently serves up questions that we don’t think to ask, and that recognizes the value of leaving such questions unanswered. The production features a strong and buoyant cast; I especially appre- ciated Amy Kim Waschke’s sto- ic and yet surprisingly lovable portrayal of Hannah’s depressed mother and Jessica Ko’s captivat- ing shifts through a whole host of mystical characters. Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” is actually two plays, and this sea- son Part One and Part Two are both being performed and can be seen separately or back-to-back. They are directed by two rising African-American directors, Lil- iana Blain-Cruz and Carl Cofield, and feature largely the same very strong diverse cast. They con- cern the reign of Henry IV, whose kingdom is embattled by rebel- lions in both parts, and his trou- bled relationship with his oldest photo by J enny g raham son and heir, Prince Hal. In Part Voices of the marginalized are lifted up with sensitivity and respect in ‘Mojada,’ a play that explores life among Mexican immigrants. The production just finished its run at the Oregon Shakespeare Festi- One, Hal seems determined to thwart his father’s expectations, val and will get a repeat production this fall by Portland Center Stage. wasting his resources and consid- erable intelligence in hard-living with his drinking buddy, the old- er Sir John Falstaff. Blain-Cruz’s production sets the play in a mod- ern context and is one of the most accessible Shakespeare histories I’ve ever seen, conveying Hal’s dissolution and the play’s many conflicts with a current and vis- ceral urgency. Part Two continues Hal’s journey away from Falstaff and toward the expectations of the throne. Though its tone is much more somber, Cofield’s produc- tion includes some deeply funny bits involving a host of outra- geous side characters. Daniel Jose’ Molina’s Hal bristles with intelligence and wit, and G. Valmont Thomas is fine as the scheming Falstaff. The ensem- ble cast of both shows embodies a dazzling variety of characters, shifting nimbly from broad com- edy to nuanced melancholy. The productions offer a feast of great acting, especially for Shake- speare aficionados. I’ll post soon about the re- maining shows, including a par- ticularly strong outdoor season. Darleen Ortega, a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals and the first woman of color to serve in that capacity, serves on the board of the Oregon Shakespeare Fes- tival. Her movie review column Opinionated Judge appears reg- ularly in The Portland Observer. Find her movie blog at opinionat- edjudge.blogspot.com.
