Oregon Shakespare Festival 2017: Julius Caesar

Left to right: Stephen Michael Spencer, Rodney Gardiner (kneeling), Armando Durán, Danforth Comins. Photo courtesy Jenny Graham and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar has a misleading name. Although the Roman leader does play a significant role, and his assassination is what sparks most of its action, we never learn much about him or see him develop. Rather, Julius Caesar is an examination of political ambition, public opinion, and how the worst acts are often paved with good intentions. Shana Cooper’s bare, unsettling production strips away the formal veneer of ancient Rome to expose the action as men committing acts of horrific violence for unclear reasons.

Armando Durán portrays the role of Caesar in this production. His interpretation is very different from that of Vilma Silva, who played the same part in OSF’s 2011 production: While Silva was composed and quiet, Durán has a casual, Reaganesque charisma that makes it easy to see why the Roman public adores him. Vaguely aware of the plot to assassinate him, Durán’s Caesar resigns himself to his fate: He accepts that Caesar the public figure is something that has eclipsed Caesar the man, and that his death is no longer anything over which he has control. The objections of Calpurnia (Amy Kim Waschke), his wife, complicates the topic, however: As her sincere, emotional dialogue work correctly notes, Julius Caesar is still a human being, regardless of where history has seated him.

After Ceasar is assassinated, war ignites between loyalist Mark Antony (Jordan Barbour) and the turncoat senators led by Marcus Brutus (Danforth Comins) and Cassius (Rodney Gardiner). Barbour’s emotional interpretation of Antony, combined with our perspective of the events mainly coming from the senators, leads one to believe that he is strong but straightforward; however, his famous “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech is so terrifyingly persuasive that it undoes not only the hold the Senators had on the common people, but the audience’s conception of Antony himself.

Cassius has the clearest conscience about killing Caesar, but because the audience is never given a clear vision of Caesar’s actions, we don’t know if  this is a mere power play or done out of some kind of conviction. Rodney Gardiner’s performance leads us to believe Cassius’ motives are more on the selfish side, as his preparations for the killing are tinged with an almost innocent enthusiasm. Comins’ Brutus is a fairly standard handling of the role – a conflicted man who doubts his actions from the start of the play – but his performance is heartfelt and powerful.

Sibyl Wickersheimer’s set, and Cooper’s direction of the Roman public, is what gives the play new meaning. The set is somehow both sterile and destroyed, making use of wooden slats, folding chairs, and a statue covered with cloth and packing tape. The members of the public caper about dressed in Greek chorus masks, reminiscent of a gang of cannibals in a Mad Max movie. Nothing we are presented onstage implies that ownership of the Roman empire or of the hearts of the people has any value whatsoever, and that the entire course of the play is a series of pointless acts of violence.

Julius Caesar at OSF’s 2017 season strips away the majesty of ancient Rome from the story of several people who murder thousands for vague reasons. It’s a filthy, bleak, depressing rendition that reveals more about Shakespeare’s original text than any production draped in togas.

Julius Caesar runs until October 29th.

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Our Comprehensive Coverage of the OSF 2017 Season

• Coverage Overview
• UniSon
• Hannah and the Dread Gazebo
• Julius Caesar
• Henry IV, Part 1
• The Merry Wives of Windsor
• The Odyssey
• Beauty And The Beast

Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2016: Hamlet

Left to right: Jennie Greenberry, Danforth Comins. Photo courtesy Jenny Graham and Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a masterpiece filled with ambiguity. Why does the titular character take so long to exact his plan of revenge? How real is the ghost of the old king? What is the source of Ophelia’s madness, and what goes through Hamlet’s mind as the events of the play unfold? Though many productions are comfortable with merely asking these questions, this season’s raw, powerful production of Hamlet dares to provide answers.

In an unusual portrayal, Danforth Comins’ Hamlet is practical and focused. He sees his plan to kill Claudius as renewed purpose for his life, and thus most of Hamlet’s actions and dialogue in the first act become small parts of his grander scheme. In this production, it could be said that Hamlet’s fatal flaw, instead of obsession with his uncle, is overconfidence in his plotting; he shows genuine remorse when his scheme starts claiming innocent lives in the second half of the play. This is a fresh and interesting decision on the part of Comins and director Lisa Peterson; many productions portray Hamlet as becoming icy and uncaring the moment he decides to assassinate Claudius.

Other standout characters include Horatio (Christiana Clark) and Polonius (Derrick Lee Weeden). Clark is sincere and emotional without betraying Horatio’s stoic background, and provides a breath of air amidst the unfolding tragedy. In the nest of vipers that is the Danish court, Clark’s Horatio says what she means without ulterior motive. Weeden’s portrayal of Polonius is sympathetic, if a bit naïve; he struggles to maintain the delicacies of his life, but he doesn’t condescend and is a truly caring father. Even Hamlet recognizes this, despite tormenting him throughout the first half; the look of surprise on his face as the dead Polonius falls out of the curtain is a defining moment of his character, and we as the audience understand why.

The sets and costumes (Laura Jellinek and David C. Woolard, respectively) are some of the most profound and meaningful technical theatre I have seen. The promotional materials for the play describe doom metal as a major theme; Hamlet holds a guitar menacingly on the front of the playbill. Yet although the heavy metal is always prevalent on stage (the available furniture is only a few clusters of speakers), the guitars start up solely when peering into the mind of Hamlet, with the exception of Ophelia in the depths of her madness. Allowing only Hamlet the use of the play’s flashiest theme focuses the play internally, making it less about Danish political intrigue and more about the prince’s personal disintegration.

 The use of color in the production deserves special attention. At the beginning of the play, all the characters dress in blacks, whites, and grays, bringing to mind the formality of the aristocracy. As the court sinks into chaos, insanity, and death, red – in the form of blood, light, and props – slowly engulfs the entire stage. Of note are the red highlights present in Ophelia’s hair from the very beginning of the play, subtly hinting at both the collapse of the royal family and her personal decline. The traveling players, however, blast the stage with bright colors to signify their detachment from the rest of the cast.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2016 production of Hamlet lives up to expectations set by their stellar 2010 version, yet takes significantly more risks. The outlandish doom metal theme could have been overused; the interpretations of the characters could have been misconstrued. But instead, the 2016 production of Hamlet becomes one of the greatest, most outstanding productions that OSF has staged in recent memory.

Part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2016 season.