Ashland Trip (OSF)
This past weekend, I went to Ashland with my mom in order to visit the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF). The drive down is super scenic, as you pass though many different biomes in order to reach the final destination. On the way down, we passed though many sunny and rainy patches on the interstate, and eventually stopped in Eugene to refuel and get snacks. I always enjoy going down to Ashland, as both of my parents went to college there, and my mom always has a unique story to tell about a store or restaurant. The two plays we saw while at the festival were Emma and The Taming of the Shrew, which both preformed in the Elizabethan Theatre–OSF’s globe-style open-air theatre–and were incredibly different from each other in set and costume design. We saw Emma on the night that we arrived, and it was a wonderful adaptation of the Jane Austin book of the same name, using modern music numbers to cover scene transitions, and modern language as well as a slightly updated plot. One thing I really enjoyed about this in particular was that the altered plot allowed for some of the characters to be explored more in depth– for example, Mr. Knightly had a very aggressive berry-picking party, and Emma was allowed to be more mischievous and unkind, while Harriet Smith and Jane Fairfax were far more emotive than they were in the original. While some of this is obviously due to the modern audience, script, and actors, I really enjoyed the social commentary that this play was able to offer. The next night, we saw The Taming of the Shrew, which was a play that I hadn’t been expecting to enjoy as much as I did. I tend to really dislike plots that involve someone forcing themselves upon someone else, but I enjoyed that in this adaptation, Katherine was able to regain some of her power by following along with Petruchio’s wants, almost becoming apart of a bit. I have always enjoyed seeing how OSF adapts Shakespeare’s works, as many of them require horses, which the venue does not have the space to accommodate this. In this show, the ‘horse’ was in fact a bright red motorcycle, that roared onto the stage with Grumio and Petruchio–who was wearing a bright white and sparkly wedding dress–sat astride it. Additionally, one cast member ended up playing many different characters back to back, often having a few seconds to change costumes, or even having to change costumes onstage. This was super funny and memorable to me, as this is one of my favorite bits to see in stage shows. Overall, this was a delightful performance and I really wish I had gotten to see more plays in my short weekend in Ashland. The place we stayed in was a bit unnerving, with long, twisty hallways that seemed to lead to nowhere. It reminded me of another place where I had stayed with my mom a few years back, when we ended up getting lost in the employee hallway after taking a wrong turn through a door. It was certainly an interesting experience that has become an inside joke between my mom and I. The morning after seeing Taming, we set off. Like before, we stopped in Eugene to get gas and some lunch. Additionally, we explored the area around Marché–a place my mom knows well–before getting back in the car and heading home.