Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2019

The 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival season included three Shakespeare plays and one adaptation, and gives us a snapshot at the current state of OSF.

As You Like It – directed by Rosa Joshi – opened in the Angus Bowmer Theatre in March and ran throughout the season. It was a somewhat controversial production which quickly provoked comment on social media, not all of it positive. The director made textual changes and bold, unconventional casting decisions.

There was a good deal of gender swapping, which went beyond the simple matter of Rosalind dressing as a man; the production had a female Jacques, and a woman leader of the exiles in Arden, who kept the title of Duke although referred to as “she.” The whole group of exiled followers were gender-neutral, dressed in androgynous costumes. A note in the Playbill explained the thinking behind these moves:

a series of questions emerged that ultimately framed the representation of gender in the production. What if the cycle of                  exile in the court reflected the dismissal of powerful women and the men who fear them? What if Duke Frederick banished              his sister instead of his brother and Rosalind’s initial quest in Arden is to seek out her mother?

To carry this notion a little further, Audrey became Aubrey, and his marriage to Touchstone was presented as being quite unremarkable. To cite but one…