Dachs Thoughts

Tonight I saw the last play of the Jonathan Moscone era at CalShakes. It was a modern farcical comedy entitled The Mystery of Irma Vep, by Charles Ludlam. I was joined by Bill and Andy, and Andy pointed out it seemed to be a takeoff on Rebecca. The story was silly and campy, and the acting was over-the-top, but fun. The production itself only had two actors, the always humorous Danny Scheie and Liam Vincent, who played a number of male and female roles. A big part of the fun was seeing them go off stage dressed one way, for example as a man, and then return relatively quickly dressed and made up as a woman. It was impressive to seem them flip between characters and costumes. It was a light play, but it was fun and enjoyable. The next artistic director for CalShakes has been announced, and I hope it continues to be as good.

Alas, my brief mile high Shakespeare vacation is coming to an end all too soon. Tonight I saw my last play of this visit to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Henry V. It was a wonderful, flawlessly acted production. The actor who played Henry, Benjamin Bonenfant, is a really talented young actor, appearing in a number of plays this summer and last. He played the younger Hal in last year’s Henry IV (parts 1 and 2), and now he’s completed the cycle. I get more and more impressed with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival with each performance. With Henry carrying most of the weight, most of the secondary characters were played by the company’s top performers as well. Even the final proposal scene, which I don’t always enjoy, flowed naturally story, and was executed very well. I had a great seat in the 2nd row, and as they came on and off the stage, I really got the full experience. I can’t wait to find out what’s going to be in their 2016 season, because I definitely want to come.
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Tonight I saw a fantastic production of Othello in the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. I don’t like the idea of the story of Othello, basically because the good people are brought down by the bad guy, and the bad guy kind of wins … but the play is so compelling. And this production was terrific, ending with a standing ovation, and leaving me genuinely choked up.The acting was wonderful, particularly from the two principals playing Othello and Iago. Peter Macon, who played Othello, has a rich commanding voice, and he brought such emotion to his part as he is gradually consumed by the jealousy planted and nurtured by Iago. And Geoffrey Kent, a CoSF regular who played Iago, and who also has a powerful, rich voice, was powerfully effective as the deceitful villain. The ending of the play comes on like a train wreck that you know is coming, and which you wish could change, but you can’t stop. Just terrific.

I stuck around after the play for the “talkback” that some of the actors do, and the Iago actor was there. It was interesting to here his insights into that character and the way the play was worked out during the development of the production.

The day began with a trip down to Denver where I had lunch at IKEA (who would have thought) with my friend, then a nice visit with my cousins. A wonderful, full day.

After flying in from the Bay Area, I made my way up to Boulder for an exciting, enjoyable, evening of theater. This represented two firsts for me. I saw the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s production of Henry VI, Part 1, one of the few remaining Shakespeare plays I hadn’t seen before. Moreover, it was done as one of CSF’s “Original Practices” productions, the first one I’ve seen.

The set was basic, and unchanging, consisting of some structures with some tapestries. These were used for many locations, castles, etc in England and France. It was a little challenging to follow the story since there’s a lot of history, and they jumped around using actors for multiples roles. But it was great fun. The original practices concept gives the actors less rehearsal, only guided by a que script, and lots of interaction with the audience with the lights up the whole time. They even had someone on stage giving them lines if they forgot their place. And they placed some audience seats on the stage just like they used to do with the aristocracy.

I think they played up humor of the play, particularly with the French aristocrats in the beginning. The play overall was quite fun, but also poignant, and the roughness of the original practices production seemed natural and energized both the cast and crew. I’m really glad I got to see it.
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On a surprisingly cool evening (for July in the valley) I saw the second play of the Livermore Shakespeare Festival, As You Like It. They did a great job. I’m liking the little stage more and more. This time there was less traffic noise, maybe because we were on the more southern side.

It’s a nice romantic play, with a happy ending, and the cast was great. It went nearly a full three hours, but it moved along quickly. This was again coordinated by Bob. It was another great evening of theater and Shakespare.
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Tonight I saw the next play in CalShakes season, Life is a Dream, a play from the Spanish Golden Age, by a near contemporary of Shakespeare, Pedro Calderón del la Barca. I enjoyed it. The stage stage was spare, but beautifully designed with a curved arching wall/path and circular motifs within the stage. The actors were all strong. It was great to see Julian López-Morillas back at CalShakes again, as he has always been one of my favorites going back to the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival days. The play deals with the themes of self-determination versus destiny, morality, and reality versus imagination.

We had a mixed group this time: Jennifer joined us for the first time in many years, and as Andy was away, and Bill brought along Doug for the first time. I was a nice evening to get away from the press of work and enjoy a great play among the hills.

Tonight, before the 4th of July weekend kicks-in, I saw San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s production of Romeo and Juliet, i.e., this season’s Free Shakespeare in the Park. The stage seemed pretty similar in structure to last years except for the paint covering it. Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorites. Maybe I’m getting too picky, but the production seemed just ok to me (although two newspaper reviews I read after the fact loved it). The interesting thing is that the words and the drama are so strong in this play that my perceived production failings didn’t seem to lessen the impact of the play.

The actors delivered the lines very accurately and clearly, and there was a particular focus on emphasizing the rhyming of the lines. This made the rhythm of the lines seem a little strange to me. They also made the opening prologue into a group chant, which I didn’t really like. The other thing that bugged me was the casting of Tybalt and Benvolio with women. This seems to be a trend lately, and while they were adequate actors, it didn’t help the story for me. But despite these personal irritations, the dramatic climax still was very moving — a testimony to the power of the play. 119