Picto Diary - 23 September 2016 - OSF Hamlet, Richard II

Above: Omars, Ashland, OR. 23 September 2016.

Potato and Leek soup at a bar where you could squint and imagine yourself seated in the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine.

Here was a different side of Ashland than that which I'd seen before.

Characters. Beards, tattoos, long hair under baseball caps, and a very friendly, tattooed, bartender/waitress.

Above: Oliver Ford Davies as York and David Tennant as Richard II in Royal Shakespeare Company, 2013 production of "Richard II."

Richard II. OSF.

Upended by Bolingbrook.

Early version of The Caine Mutiny.

"Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day."

William Shakespeare, Richard II

Ambiguous cousins.

Richard II - Dandy. Narcissistic.
Bolingbrook - Capable, charismatic, self doubt.
Aumerle - Schemer. Played both sides.

Unctuous uncles.

Edward. Line of succession.
York. Put king before son Aumerle.
Gloucester. Offed by Richard/Mobray?
Gaunt. King land grab sparks Bolingbrook's ire.

Rarely performed play pivots around dandy king and his more responsible, but tormented, usurper cousin.

Richard's II played by Christopher Liam Moore, in one of best acting performances I've ever seen. The reciprocal, say, of Brad Pitt playing Brad Pitt in "Inglorious Bastards." I was drawn into Moore's performance from the outset and was mesmerized for the whole play.

Moore stood out against all other characters, all of whom were fine in their own way.

K. T. Vogt was magnificent as Duchess of York, York's wife and Aumerle's mom.

Above: Allen Outdoor Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), pre-Hamlet performance, 23 September 2016.

Pre Hamlet dinner at Smithfields. One if my favorite restaurants anywhere. Ribeye. Malbec.

Adjacent mother daughter pair, From Santa Rosa, CA, seated at an adjacent table, thot Joyce and I were married. Made Joyce's day.

Raining lightly!
"Neither a borrower nor lender be."

Above: Japanese drum group. Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show. Ashland, OR. 23 September 23 2006.

Girl on the left said that her group played at St. Quinton prison. Said that there was a lot of injustice in the prison system. I wonder what she meant? Like the prisoners shouldn't be there? The California prison system should talk to this girl. She sounds like she has some important insights into the prison system (cough).

Above: Aunt Joyce and Bishop. Hamlet in the rain. Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Allen Outdoor Theater, Ashland, OR. 23 September 2016.

"To thine own self be true."

Ghost atmospherics compelling. Multiple, near simultaneous, apparitions of Ghost King Hamlet, in silver-grey, accented by strobe lights.

Hearing, again, the familiar lines - "To be....yada" and others..."neither a borrower....yada," underscores the pervasiveness of Shakespeare in the western cultural zeitgeist.

OSF is a theatrical avatar of pee cee. Polonius, Laertes, and Ophelia were played by black actors. A female, black actor (see...I can be pee cee too) played Horatio.

Clothing was pseudo contemporary (of the period )...silver/grey, impressionistic.

Periodic mood music was supplied by heavy metal bass guitarist in techno like setting on second level stage above the proscenium.

Acting universally superb. Moody, creepy, Hamlet (Danforth Comins) played the audience. Big, booming, bass Polonius (Robert Vincent Frank), in full length, impressionistic, silver coat was mesmerizing in his soliloquy to France bound Laertes. Rosenkranz and Guildenstern were suitably buffoonish in costume and demeanor.

At play's end, Fortinbras and the Norwegians seemed weak, in contrast, but they are not an important part of the play.

OSF has done as good a job as can be done in keeping a four hour play experience in Elizabethan English consistently vital and engrossing. I'm temporizing. I was engaged for the entire four hour play.