Theater review
One gift of a company like Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which concurrently presents multiple shows on multiple stages, is the chance to see actors stretching their talents in different ways, and to have a variety of theatrical experiences built on one another like a wonderful, multicourse meal. I recently spent a weekend at the 90-year-old company in Ashland, Ore., and saw as many shows as chronologically possible.
“Julius Caesar”
Somehow, I always forget that Caesar dies in Act One of “Julius Caesar.”
Watching Kate Wisniewski in the role of the title dictator, I think I finally understand why. Steely-voiced with a face framed by silver hair sleek as armor, Wisniewski casts a shadow that looms over the entire work, reminding us of the horror that tyrannical leaders can wreak long after they’re dead.
“Julius Caesar” is directed by OSF’s associate artistic director Rosa Joshi and produced in association with upstart crow collective. The Seattle-based collective, dedicated to presenting Shakespeare plays with entirely female and nonbinary casts, was co-founded by Joshi, Wisniewski and Betsy Schwartz, who appears as Brutus’ ill-fated wife, Portia.
Joshi always brings remarkable clarity to dense material with many similar characters. She’s aided here by a strong (if uneven) cast, led by excellent performances from Wisniewski; Kate Hurster as the principled, conflicted Brutus; and Jessika D. Williams as the peacocking, Caesar-defender Mark Antony.
Guided by movement direction from Seattle-based artist Alice Gosti, the cast shook in unison as the show began — lit in red, they looked like waves of heat rising from the earth — and it proved a powerful, volcanic start.
Within such strong movement work and such a tense narrative, the show’s stage combat felt disappointingly low stakes, and I’m pretty sick of spare sets painted in the seemingly theater-specific combination of grays that always look exactly like fake stone. Even so, a political thriller that questions who its villains and heroes are and probes the squishy, infected concept of “for the good of the people” always has plenty to offer a thoughtful audience.
“The Importance of Being Earnest”
Desdemona Chiang, a prodigious directing talent and a regular fixture at Seattle theaters, set this OSF production of Oscar Wilde’s 1895 comedy in Penang, Malaysia, a city that began its modern history as a British colony founded by the East India Company in 1786.
It’s an inspired revision, exploring the multicultural richness of the Malay Peninsula to tell this over-the-top story of manners and misunderstandings. (It also provides a beautiful and perhaps-more-legible-to-2025-audiences contrast between the comedy’s city-dwellers and country-dwellers, in terms of settings.)
Two friends, John Worthing (Julian Remulla) and Algernon Moncrieff (Hao Feng), have both invented fake acquaintances to let them do what they want without societal judgment. Two women, Cecily Cardew (Thilini Dissanayake) and Gwendolen Fairfax (Kiki deLohr), are dead set on falling in love with someone named Earnest. Why? Who cares!
Rarely have I heard an audience laugh as hard as this OSF crowd snort-laughed at Seattle favorite deLohr playing the determined, love-rabid Gwendolen, or at the pursed-lips energy of Linda Alper playing Gwendolen’s formidable mother, Lady Bracknell. Breathing new life and laughter into such a well-loved play is no easy feat, and this team delivers the whole package.
“Fat Ham”
James Ijames’ “Fat Ham” has swept regional stages nationwide since its 2021 premiere and 2022 Pulitzer Prize win, and that production tidal wave includes a 2024 production at Seattle Rep. Calling this play a modern take on “Hamlet” almost does it a disservice, because Ijames’ play tells a beautiful, complex family story all its own, peppered with surprising bursts of music and dance as moments of joy and self-expression.
As the story begins, Juicy (Marshall W. Mabry IV, giving a gorgeous performance), as our melancholy central character here is known, is prepping for a backyard barbecue to celebrate the wedding of his recently widowed mother, Tedra (Lynnette R. Freedman), to his uncle, Rev (Aldo Billingslea, who also plays the ghost of Juicy’s father, Pap).
As Juicy and his family (including Seattle’s Shaunyce Omar as Rabby, a god-fearing woman with secrets of her own) come together for this ostensible celebration, they’re stuck in their pasts — a quicksand of fear, hope, family and duty — while slowly, sometimes painfully, moving toward the light of self-discovery.
“As You Like It”
The stark opening scenes of Lisa Peterson’s “As You Like It” are unbelievably unappealing, but in a good way.
Shakespeare’s romantic comedy begins in the court of Duke Frederick (René Millán), where the Duke’s daughter, Celia (understudy Ava Mingo, at the performance I saw), and her cousin, Rosalind (Nell Geisslinger, delightful), live in an oppressively regimented world, all watched clocks and white walls.
The court’s sterility makes the reveal of the Forest of Arden — a groovy, technicolor wonderland where Rosalind’s father, the banished Duke Senior (Al Espinosa), now lives — both a joy and a relief. This ’60s-flavored interpretation owes much to set designer Tanya Orellana and costume designer An-lin Dauber (also a Seattle regular) for their manifestation of this vibrant, macrame-filled scene. (Also worth mentioning: the supporting cast includes Conner Neddersen — who gave one of my favorite Seattle performances of 2024 — as Oliver, our hero Orlando’s neglectful older brother.)
With the acoustic guitars a-strumming, what better place for Rosalind to fall in love with the young heir Orlando (Alexander Quiñones)? And what better place for all our characters to learn to love and understand themselves, and one another, better than they did before?
“Into the Woods”
Few musicals elicit such universal delight as Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s fairy tale mélange “Into the Woods.”
As directed (and music directed) by Amanda Denhert, this production has big, oftentimes wonderful, “let us tell you a story” energy. Actors mill around on stage before the show starts, wearing white costumes that signal a neutral start to a story that will soon fill with color, like watercolor spreading through paper. Throughout the show, select audience members are integrated as animal characters, a charming choice that lets us all tell the story together.
There were, unfortunately, a few weak voices in the cast, but standouts include Seattle favorite Justin Huertas as Jack (of “Jack and the Beanstalk” fame); the golden-voiced comedian Royer Bockus as Rapunzel; Miriam A. Laube as a powerful Witch; Eddie Lopez, who is giving one of the funniest, best-sung turns as Cinderella’s Prince I’ve ever seen; and Linda Alper who, in addition to playing Cinderella’s stepmother, gives an unreasonably hilarious performance as Jack’s cow, Milky White.
I’m not sure if including things like TikTok dances in the choreography or Charli XCX references in the costume design are actually good jokes or just “things we recognize,” a pet peeve of mine when it comes to comedy. I know this is a grumpy take on a lighthearted choice, but I stand by it. Still, it didn’t undercut the overall magic of this ebullient production, which uses every nook and cranny of OSF’s outdoor Elizabethan-style theater to excellent effect.
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