Shakespeare Fans discussion
Live Performances!
>
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Ian
(new)
Sep 01, 2009 09:21PM
Just got back from another amazing week of plays in Ashland, Oregon! The highlight was Bill Cain's new play EQUIVOCATION. It centers around the 1605 gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament and imagines what Shakespeare would have thought if he had been asked to write a play about it. AMAZING play! This will surely put Mr. Cain on the map. it runs until the end of Sept. in Ashland and then moves to Seattle Repertory Theater in November. If anyone lives near Seattle GO SEE IT!! You will not be sorry.
reply
|
flag
Hi, Ian. I am in Ashland right now, with two plays down and seven more to go. I am very much looking froward to seeing "Equivocation" tomorrow afternoon. I have heard nothing but good things about it. Tonight I see "Much Ado."
Enjoy! Let me know what you thought of the plays. I go to Ashland every year and this year was one of the best by far. I hope you get a chance to see Henry VIII if for no reason but to see a staged production. Very rare indeed! OSF last produced it in 1983! please let me know what you think of the ALLS WELL too. My favorite Shakespeare production of the season!
Ian, you give me something to look forward to. "All's Well" will be the last play of the week for me. I saw "Much Ado" last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't know why directors think they have to change settings or centuries to be creative, but in this instance the change was unobtrusive and even added a little food for thought. I was sitting with my fifteen-year-old nephew, who seemed to enjoy the production as much as I did.
"Paradise Lost," the Clifford Odets play, was well acted; that is to say, the actors did the best they could with the script. I had the feeling that Odets tried to be a Chekhov. Bad idea. Chekhov is Chekhov.
"Don Quixote" was delightful, of course, and the use of puppets was brilliant in conception and execution. I would have appreciated the play more if its spirit had been more that of Cervantes and less that of twenty-first-century media pundits. Too much to ask, though, I guess.
The weather is perfect, and I'm having a wonderful week.
You're right, Ian: All's Well ended up being my favorite production, too. It's a hard one to read, and usually even harder to watch. I love the intimate stage and just everything they did with it. You might be interested in reading my brother's take on the plays:http://www.artscatter.com/general/ash...
http://www.artscatter.com/general/ash...
I won't be anywhere near Oregon (sadly), but All's Well is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, too.Did anyone go to hear the Shakespearean "educational" classes/workshops offered?
I'm getting geared up for my 2010 Ashland experience. I'll be there in August to see Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Henry IV part 1, and The Merchant of Venice. Also Throne of Blood, Pride and Prejudice, She Loves Me, Ruined, and American Night.
Laurele wrote: "I'm getting geared up for my 2010 Ashland experience. I'll be there in August to see Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Henry IV part 1, and The Merchant of Venice. Also Throne of Blood, Pride and Prejudice, S..."That is so fine and enlightening.
I've been in Ashland all week for nine plays, four of them Shakespeare. An amazing performance of Hamlet, though I didn't like the updated staging. Twelfth Night was pretty bad--no respect at all for the audience's intelligence. The Merchant of Venice was very thoughtfulloy played. I'm gearing up right now for Henry iv, part i.
