As You Like It

Thomas Theatre through October 24

This beautiful, inventive production confirmed As You Like It as my favorite Shakespeare comedy. The main character, Rosalind (played with winning enthusiasm by Nell Geisslinger), is a headstrong young woman who doesn’t mind cross-dressing when necessary. Her close friendship with her cousin Celia (Kat Peña, in a lovely performance) makes them more like sisters — or even partners. What’s not to like?

Lisa Peterson’s expert direction keeps the action going at a pace that never flags. The comedy is set in two basic locations: the severe world of the Court and the fun-loving world of the Arden Forest, where banished nobles and their servants take refuge. Scenic designer Tanya Orellana and costume designer An-lin Dauber created appropriately severe, monochromatic sets and costumes for the Court, and a brightly colored, 1960s-style environment for the forest enclave. The hippie costumes are absolutely fabulous — whoever did all that crocheting deserves a raise.

Those hippies love to play guitar and sing too. Composer and music director Paul James Prendergast did a great job of creating the sounds of 1960s folk rock, and choreographer Sunny Min-Sook Hitt helped the cast move with the music.

Cast members all performed admirably. David Anthony Lewis as the fool Touchstone, Sheila Tousey as the poet Jacques, Al Espinosa as the banished Duke Senior, Mark Murphey as the aged servant Adam, and Alexander Quiñones as Rosalind’s love Orlando gave particularly memorable performances. Amy Lizardo as the shepherd Phoebe proved to have an impressive singing voice as well as acting chops.

Into the Woods

Allen Elizabethan Theatre through October 11

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s most renowned musical has by now become a familiar classic. In 2014, OSF mounted a splendid production, now revived with many of the same cast members.

To pull the audience into the fairy-tale world of the play, director and conductor Amanda Dehnert has the actors begin by wearing street clothes and mingling with the audience. Gradually they move to the stage and reappear in costume. The device works well.

The play begins and ends with characters saying “I wish.” In the first act, characters’ wishes are fulfilled, with the promise that all will live happily ever after. The second act turns dark, and by the end, the few survivors form a community to keep each other safe and connected. GLBTQ+ audience members, knowing that the play was written in the mid-1980s, can surely identify with the sudden, unpredictable losses of loved ones and the importance of community, expressed in the song “No One Is Alone.”

The cast and musicians did a superb job of navigating the complicated score. There wasn’t a weak link; all performed with confidence and skill.

Miriam A. Laube, her charisma intact after several years away from Ashland, is still the perfect Witch, the character who always tells the truth and gets to sing several of the best songs. Royer Bockus is terrific as her daughter Rapunzel. Other standout performers include Eddie Lopez as Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf, Rhea Bradley as Little Red Riding Hood, Kjerstine Rose Anderson as the Baker’s Wife, Cedric Lamar as the Baker, Bebe Browning as Cinderella, Justin Huertas as Jack, and Kiki deLohr and Ellen Soraya Nikbakht as Cinderella’s evil stepsisters. These last two are simply a hoot.

If you are planning a visit to Ashland this year, don’t miss this spectacular production. It’s not likely to be repeated any time soon.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Angus Bowmer Theatre through October 25

OSF gives Oscar Wilde’s last and most popular play a thoroughly enjoyable production. This delightful, witty drawing-room comedy features some of the funniest lines ever written for theater and some of the funniest bits of physical comedy too. Although the play’s characters are not Gay, the humor certainly is.

Director Desdemona Chiang has set the play in 1895 British Malaya rather than in England. This unusual choice works well by emphasizing cultural and class differences. The sets designed by Se Hyun Oh and costumes designed by Melissa Torchia are gorgeous and period-perfect.

The main character and Wilde stand-in, Algernon Moncrieff, is a “dandy,” a seemingly straight man who dresses in fancy, flowing clothes and tosses witticisms about. Hao Feng has a field day with the role, arching his eyebrows and making fun of himself and everyone else.

Julian Remulla is excellent as Algernon’s humorless and therefore hilarious friend John Worthing. As Gwendolen Fairfax, John’s love interest, Kiki deLohr is fantastically pretentious. Long-time OSF regular Linda Alpert is excellent as Gwendolen’s snooty mother. Thilini Dissanayake plays Algernon’s love interest Cecily as a breath of fresh air, with admirable candor and an odd sense of humor. OSF veteran Rex Young makes the most of the tiny role of Lane, Algernon’s butler. He got some of the biggest laughs of the evening.

I found the scenes portraying the friendship between the two young men and the enemies-becoming-friends relationship between the two young women to be as satisfying as the scenes of courtship. Wilde clearly valued friendship at least as much as romantic love, and humor above all.

Jitney

Angus Bowmer Theatre through July 20

Jitney is the eighth play of August Wilson’s 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle — set in each decade of the 20th century — to be produced at OSF. In addition, the 2024 season included a one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned, about Wilson’s life, and the 2026 season will include a ninth Pittsburgh play, King Hedley II. Artistic Director Tim Bond has been intimately connected with Wilson’s work and has directed a number of these plays at OSF, including this year’s superb production of Jitney.

One look at the stage is enough to establish Jitney firmly in the 1970s. The set, designed by Scott Bradley, shows the shabby headquarters of Becker’s Car Service. A smudged window indicates that this space was once a meat market. A sign on the wall lists Becker’s rules, and a chalkboard shows how many rides each driver has given that day. The furniture is earth-toned and ragged.

This production represents one of the best examples of ensemble acting I’ve ever witnessed. Wilson’s gift for dialog is unequaled, and these actors do it justice. James A. Williams, who plays Becker, has probably acted in more productions of Wilson’s plays than anyone, and it shows. Kevin Kenerly, a longtime OSF regular, is outstanding as the meddling character Turnbo. Tyrone Wilson, another OSF veteran, excels as the alcoholic but likable Fielding. Aldo Billingslea as the wise Doub and Chris Butler as Becker’s estranged son Booster couldn’t be better.

Jitney shows how people who work together become a kind of family, annoying each other but being there in a pinch. The play contains violence and sadness but ends on a hopeful note.

Fat Ham

Thomas Theatre through June 27

James Ijames’s Fat Ham played last year at Seattle Rep. I gave it a rave review then and am giving it another one now. I’d be hard-pressed to say which production I prefer.

Fat Ham is a brilliant comedic reinterpretation of Hamlet, seen through the lens of Queer Black joy. As Juicy, the Queer character who represents Hamlet, Marshall W. Mabry IV gave a great performance. His melodious speaking voice still rings in my ears, as does his moving rendition of Radiohead’s song “Creep.” Christian Denzel Bufford gave a sensitive portrayal of Juicy’s friend Larry, who has become a Marine to please his mother (played well by Shaunyce Omar) and is afraid to be as Gay as he feels. As Juicy’s perpetually stoned friend Tio and his spitfire Lesbian friend Opal, Davied Morales and Saran Evelyn Bakari were just plain fun.

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Allen Elizabethan Theatre through October 12

This production convinced me that even a good production can’t save a bad play. Yes, I’ve said it: Shakespeare wrote a bad play. The current OSF production is the best I’ve ever seen, but it’s still a bad play.
As we exited the theater, my companion said, “My favorite thing was the dog.” The dog was a puppet, with no lines. That said it all.
Director Terry McMahon gets credit for trying to liven up this not very funny comedy (hence the dog). Daniel T. Parker did a good job as Falstaff, and Amy Kim Waschke and Royer Bockus had great chemistry as the merry wives. The focus on their friendship almost saved the play.
Teri Brown as Widow Quickly showed off a marvelous singing voice, and Tim Getman as a Welsh parson made the Corgi puppet he carried around expressive and lovable.
Two items of interest to us Queers, in addition to the chemistry between the merry wives: the character of Fenton is Nonbinary, and Dr. Caius accepts a man as his spouse at the end of the play.

Julius Caesar

Angus Bowmer Theatre through October 26

It pains me to write that I was disappointed with this all-woman Julius Caesar, coproduced with Seattle’s Upstart Crow Collective and directed by Rosa Joshi. I wanted to love it but found it lackluster and unconvincing.

Kate Hurster, who has excelled in other OSF productions, seemed uncomfortable in the role of Brutus, the main character. Brutus is an introvert who overanalyzes, and Hurster didn’t seem to know how to convey that personality type.

Caro Zeller gave a strong performance as Cassius, as did Jessika D. Williams as Mark Antony. The always excellent Sheila Tousey did an amazing job in all three of her roles.

One advantage of the all-woman cast is that it draws attention to the many lines in which women are insulted. Faint praise, I guess.

Coming up next: Quixote Nuevo and Shane

Octavio Solis’s Quixote Nuevo is a modern, musical version of the Don Quixote story. The Quixote character is a man with dementia, whose fantasies are presented onstage. Papa Calaca (Father Death) and his band of skeletons try to get Quixote to remember and atone for his failings and thereby be redeemed. Quixote Nuevo will open on July 9 in the Thomas Theatre, under the direction of Lisa Portes.

Shane, Karen Zacarias’s Western about Black cowboys, Mexican farmers, and Indigenous nations in the 19th century, will open on July 31 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre, under the direction of Blake Robison.


For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.osfashland.org.

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