Today we saw two plays, one good, one almost great. That didn’t leave us much time for anything else!
In the afternoon we saw Romeo and Juliet. Photography is not allowed in the theater, so the only visual I could find for this was this graphic from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival website. It gives an idea of the basic twist of this production: the “star-crossed lovers” are Californios living just after the American conquest. Now the more California history you know, the less sense this makes, but it does allow the director to stick in a few words of Spanish like “venga aqui, mi hija” and to draw attention to the Hispanic actors. This kind of thing is easy to deride for political correctness, but I doubt that is the point of it. All arts organizations are looking at demographic trends and unless you can make Hispanics, blacks, and Asians feel comfortable in your auditorium, your future is limited.
Generally, while the change of setting added little to the production (other than allowing them to use some lovely mid-nineteenth century costumes) it did not detract from it, either. Daniel José Molina, the young actor who played Romeo, was absolutely terrific. Jason Rojas was an utterly amazing Mercutio. I was less enchanted with Alejandra Escalante who seemed at times a little wooden as Juliet. But it was overall a solid and completely enjoyable performance.
We returned to the Green Show in the evening. Dance Kaleidoscope was again the featured company. This time they did a program of dance inspired by Motown hits. John had put down our blanket after Romeo and Juliet, so we had front-row seats. Somehow we did not bring the camera for this.
Our final play of the day was All the Way by Robert Schenkkan. This production is the world premiere of a play which deserves to be widely produced. The play depicts the first eleven months of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, focusing on his struggle to both pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and his desire to be elected in his own right to the Presidency. This is that real historic moment in the oval office, though the scene from the play looked remarkably similar.
Schenkkan is best know for his Pulitzer Prize winning Kentucky Cycle. In his liner notes for this play, he reflected on why he wrote the All the Way.
This play, like so many of the History Plays of Shakespeare is a meditation on Power. It begins in November 1963 with LBJ's sudden ascension to the Presidency following Kennedy's assassination and ends 12 months later with LBJ's historic landslide victory over Barry Goldwater. I see this period as a hinge point in American politics. Everything changes. And the modern political landscape is wrenchingly born.
The play fundamentally deals with change and compromise as a political realities. Some characters resist change altogether. Others embrace change, but are unwilling to compromise. Johnson and King understand that both are inevitable. This sense of the impurity and messiness of political life and the moral ambiguities of political aspirations are what make the play more than a docudrama about civil rights.
Jack Willis was absolutely astonishing as President Lyndon Baines Johnson as was Jonathan Haugen as Gov. George Wallace. Kenajuan Bentley quite credibly played Martin Luther King Jr., a fairly thankless role when you character has been elevated to modern sainthood. Villains and morally ambiguous characters are much more fun to watch and must be much more fun to play. Peter Frechetteas was decent as Senator Hubert Humphrey, though you got little sense of why he was referred to as a “happy warrior” at the time.
John is sure that this play will be an HBO special sometime soon, and I think he may be right.
