Where Revenge Song is raucous and celebratory, unseen is quietly devastating. Like Revenge Song, unseen has a Lesbian main character, but that's about the only similarity. It's simple in structure yet complex in meaning. Playwright Mona Mansour's unseen is beautifully written, staged, and acted. This play is the one I can't stop thinking about. Although Sara Ryung Clement's set consisted of nothing more than graffiti on walls, there were plenty of props, including a carousel horse and a rubber chicken used to hilarious effect in Johnson and Ryen's demonstration of consent. Maag and projections designed by Katherine Freer made the stage pulsate with energy. ![]() Music director Elisa Money seemed to be everywhere at all times, playing a wide variety of instruments and keeping the other musicians on track.Ĭostumes designed by Ulises Alcala merged 17th-century fashion with the riot grrrl style of the 1990s. Jonathan Toppo, now in his 30th season at OSF. I didn't count how many sword fights took place in the course of the evening, but there were many, all performed splendidly by cast members under the direction of veteran fight director U. In many roles, with many costume changes, James Ryen, Royer Bockus, Al Espinosa, David Anthony Lewis, and Phil Wong all threw themselves with abandon into the over-the-top action. Julian Remullo gave a sweet, sympathetic portrayal of d'Aubigny's best friend Albert. In the dual roles of Madame de Senneterre (the show's narrator) and Marie (opera house owner and lover of d'Aubigny), Donna Simone Johnson was fabulously naughty. Reina Guthrie was adorable and dynamic as d'Aubigny. The opening-night performance was too much fun, from beginning to end. Shane Rettig composed the pounding punk and hip-hop score. ![]() For Revenge Song, they collaborated on the song lyrics (most memorable: "We Had Sex, Y'All" and "This Girl Breaks All the Rules"). Nguyen and Parker are co-founders of the Vampire Cowboys, a "geek theater" company devoted to pop culture and stories that feature gender-bending heroes played by people of color. (Although playwright Qui Nguyen took many liberties with d'Aubigny's life story and with the historical setting, apparently some of her most unrealistic escapades really did occur.) In the program notes for Revenge Song, director Robert Ross Parker describes the show as "a rollicking, swashbuckling, gut-busting musical-comedy-adventure spectacle." Oh, and it's about Julie d'Aubigny, an actual 17th-century Lesbian sword fighter and opera singer, who once freed her girlfriend from a convent by robbing a grave, putting the corpse in the girlfriend's bed, and setting the room on fire. ![]() (That sounds like six plays, but one of the plays about a Lesbian is also one of the musicals.) The five plays now in repertory include two musicals, two terrific new plays in which the main characters are Lesbians, a lovely production of The Tempest originally scheduled for 2020, and an outstanding one-man show by and about August Wilson. That the quality of these productions is just as high as we'd come to expect pre-COVID is an unanticipated delight. For the first time since 2019, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is once again offering live performances on three stages.
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