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53 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, January 28, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 2, 2004 ‘Silence’ could be a golden production Moira Buffini’s "Silence" is billed as a medieval circus tent pitched in a place where Shakespeare’s cross-dressers meet Monty Python’s knights. That’s not bad. This contemporary comedy about England 1,000 years ago is almost as silly as the Pythons and shares more than a little with the Bard, including a woefully inept king, a priest struggling to mortify his flesh and a sharp eye focused on the battle of the sexes. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival staged a sneak preview reading Friday morning on the stage of OSF’s New Theater, which remained in its trim for "Topdog/Underdog," Suzan-Lori Parks’ dark drama playing for the weekend. About 100 hard-core theater fans turned out for the little-publicized event. Readings presented at OSF are watched keenly because they may be harbingers of full productions to come. Witness most recently "The Belle’s Stratagem," a comedy by 18th-century playwright Hannah Cowley, which was presented as a reading last year and will be produced in the Angus Bowmer Theatre in 2005. It is 1002 in Merry England, the Dark Ages. Is the apocalypse at hand? Is society threatened by foreigners and infidel religions? Are those sexual stereotypes silly, or what? And how about those sexually frustrated priests? The lovely, 30-ish Ymma (Linda K. Morrison), a French noblewoman, has been sent to England to marry Lord Silence (Donnetta Lavinia Grays), a callow lad of 14 who has led a sheltered life in the gloomy bogs of the frozen north. Advertisement Ymma had a rough voyage, is not thrilled with England ("a backwater") and does not suffer fools gladly. "You can’t meet the king with vomit in your hair," she’s told by the soubrette (Nell Geisslinger) in a line that sets the tone. The wacky, feckless King Ethelred of England (Gregory Linnington) believes he can best serve the realm by staying in bed. He is weak, vain and silly. Don’t think Richard III, much less Henry VI. Ethelred has lines like, "What was I thinking of?!" Then he has an erotic dream about Ymma, which leads to his pursuit of her and his attempt to annul the marriage of Ymma and Silence. But the marriage wasn’t consummated. But not because Silence is a callow youth, but because she turns out to be a girl, and the women agree to keep the whole thing a secret, see? Silence is also, as Ymma will become, a voice of reason, modernity and a sort of Dark Ages common-sense proto-feminism as Buffini indulges her delight in throwing up medieval church-and-state- sanctioned teachings about the inferiority of women. As Ymma and Silence set out for Silence’s Viking outpost in the north they are pursued, natch, by Ethelred. Matters are further complicated through the involvement of Eadric (William Langan), a thuggish King’s man, and Roger (David Kelly), a priest. Suffice it to say things get silly. Then they get sillier. "Silence" was quite funny in the reading and could make a sparkling production if it doesn’t come across too preachy. Buffini is the co-author (with Anna Reynolds) of the award-wining "Jordan" and is playwright in residence at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in England. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers