To offset the costs of large productions like Macbeth, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has scheduled several one-person shows written by actors. These engaging writer/performers are all dedicated to interpreting Shakespeare’s characters.
By coincidence, the two plays now running are both partly inspired by the early deaths of the actors’ loving fathers. Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender, created and performed by Lisa Wolpe and directed by Laurie Woolery, has been playing in different versions around the world. Wolpe lost most of her ancestors in the Holocaust, and her father, a resistance fighter, killed himself when she was four years old. For protection from a stepfather, she decided to make herself manly and now, at age 65, she has played more of Shakespeare’s male characters than any woman in history. Her story is tragic and her acting is brilliant.
Rodney Gardiner, one of OSF’s funniest comic actors, finds humor everywhere, even in funerals. His play, directed by Raz Golden, is called Smote This, a Comedy about God and Other Serious Sh*t, oh, that’s a word I can’t say on the air, but it means excrement. Gardiner regales us with his auntie’s emotional behavior at Black funerals, his family’s difficulties as undocumented immigrants, the miracle of going to college, and how he survives the eight days of Hanukkah with his Jewish wife and daughter by adding his own Caribbean twist. As well as acting and writing, Gardiner can sing, dance and seemingly defy gravity. I recommend seeing any show that he’s in. He’s absolutely irresistible. It’s not the first time I’ve said that, and I will never change my mind.
