"She loved me well deliver'd it to me." - Alas!

In class today we did not spend very much time with The Importance of Being Earnest. We did, however, sum the performance into one word. My word is “physicality.” I thought the actors do a tremendous job of making the words of Oscar Wilde three-dement ional. Our class seemed to think the play humorous and enjoyable entertainment. Hilary then spent the rest of our class time discussing The Winter’s Tale.

Shakespeare wrote The Winter’s Tale at the age of 45. He embraced the new style of romance and set the standard with 4 plays of this genre: Pericles, Prince of Tyre , Cymbeline, The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale. There are 2 location, a place of reality (Sicilia with its linear storyline) and a forest infused with fantasy (Bohemia, where the story meanders). At intermission the play is in the state of tragedy. Leonates, suspecting his wife of adultery, separates himself from all who love him. His son tragically dies in the processes, he is told his wife has been killed in childbirth and his new-born daughter is sent to be left to the wolves. A violent storm comes to bring rebirth. When the audience returns from intermission 16 years have passed, the universe expands and a new generation is of age, bringing the promise of better times. For the first time we see the element of forgiveness.

At 12:00 Dad and I ventured to the park talk. We thought that James Newcomb was going to be speaking, but 15 minutes prior to the talk, we were informed that he would not be joining us. Instead, Christopher DuVaul came, whom I much prefer. As one of my favorite actors from last season, I was very excited at the prospect. Unfortunately at that point I had not seen him in any of the plays this season, so I had to store the information away until I could connect it to his performance tonight. I listened very intently and laughed a great deal with him in spite of my ignorance.

At 2:00 PM we saw OSF's The Winter’s Tale and I was grateful for the discussions I had in class and with DuVaul. The costumes and set was wonderful as expected. Beautiful silhouettes of trees moved in and out against a colored sky. I felt the performers were very clear in their objectives and therefore made the plot clear and reasonable to me. I saw the initial moment that Leonates jealousy arose. It was of no surprise to me that he felt that way, looking upon his wife casually flirting with her party guests.

When it was time for Hermione’s return I saw the director’s clear choice - Paulina kept Hermione safe the past seven years – she did not die and was not brought back to life from a statue. This concept came easily to me in the way the actors delivered their lines and followed through with their objectives.

We went to the green show, “The Shakespeare Songbook” at 7:15 PM. Actually, we arrived much earlier to secure a seat on the brick wall surrounding the grassy knoll. The dancers this year are very lovely and at the same time very strong. The musicians really did a wonderful job writing the music to Shakespeare’s lyrics in new and interesting ways. It was very delightful.

At 8:30 PM we attended Two Gentlemen of Verona. It was very exciting to see such an innovative production. The director set Verona in an Amish town, Milan in a socialite city of today (the Hamptons perhaps) and the Forest in Goth alleyways. These contrasts worked extremely well and heightened the stakes of the players. In OSF’s production, Valentine leaves the Amish village to see the world, while Proteus is forced out on his mission trip by a parent. This creates conflict for Julia, who follows to protect her love from the outside world and ensure his safe return, and provides ample reasoning for Launce’s unwillingness to leave home.

As is typical of this play, Launce and Crab (his dog) seemed to steel every scene they were in. Launce was very adaptable to the actions of the animal and used quite a bit of improve. The Shoe monologue was slightly adapted, which made the humor new and adventurous. His sister was described as a “water bottle, for look you, she is little on the top and big on the bottom.” When he described the “moan she makes” the actor squeezed the water bottle and waved it about, drenching the front rows of the audience.

The audience was very interactive tonight. One young man cried out when Proteus gave his ring (originally from Julia) to Sebastian (Julia in disguise) to give to Silvia! This provoked the rest of the audience into a fitful of laughter which stopped the show. The actress playing Julia nodded to the young man in great delight (I know, this is terrible! You got it kid!, she seemed to say) and was forced to let the audience settle before continuing the scene. It was all great fun!