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Sections Home Page Local News AP News Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Readers Choice 2006 Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Our Valley Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend July 9, 2006 OSF's flawed 'King John' still resonates in its WWI setting "King John" gets so little respect that any production of it risks being taken less as an expression of regard for the play itself than of a commitment to doing the entire Shakespeare canon. While the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which opened a taut if misguided version directed by John Sipes Saturday, certainly has such a commitment, the notion does a disservice to the play. While "King John" is not first-cabin Shakespeare, it is a highly watchable play with two signal virtues. One, it is based on a carefully focused plan that contrasts the characters of King John and Philip Faulconbridge, the Bastard, with respect to truth and honor on one side and something the Bastard calls "commodity" on the other. And two, the scurrilous behavior of these 13th century movers and shakers gives off a stench that resonates in our age no less than it did for the Elizabethans. In 2 1/2 hours, the playwright manages to tackle such thorny issues as England versus France, church versus state and self-interest versus duty, and to wrap them in a fast-moving tale of breathtaking betrayals. As always, the question is: Who should be the king? William Bloodgood's single-minded set is emblematic: a massive edifice dominated by a large red and gold throne. King John (Michael Elich) seized the crown on the death of his brother, King Richard. But a middle brother, Geoffrey, who is also dead, had a son, Arthur (Emma Harding), who by the laws of succession is the rightful king. King Philip of France (Richard Elmore) backs Arthur's claim, so war looms. John's illegitimate half-brother, Faulconbridge (René Millán), is knighted by John and at first supports him. But John is one of those sons of power and privilege who never quite grow up. A weakling, and therefore dangerous, he is cunning but neurotic. Cynical and uncaring, he neither inspires trust nor trusts others. Advertisement Sipes, the OSF's fight director for many years, has shaped the action so that poetry (it's all in iambic pentameter) that is relatively undistinguished on the page snaps to life as the characters face off against one another. Entrances and exits are managed so skillfully that we never feel the actors have to make abrupt entrances to pick up their lines. Sipes has put the action in a World-War-I-like world, with costume designer Shigeru Yaji's costumes suggesting soldiers and dignitaries of the day. The battle scenes are film projections by Alexander V. Nichols that sweep over the New Theatre's stage and infuse it with the horror of war. It's powerful enough, but one wonders what it would have been like set in, say, Iraq. As the stakes increase and the betrayals and double-crosses mount to nearly melodramatic (and unintentionally humorous) effect after the intermission, the jealous mothers of both the king and the leading contender mirror their respective fates. Constance, in a powerful performance by Robynn Rodriguez, schemes mightily for Arthur, but the two have no power and must rely on words alone and thus are doomed. Eleanor (Jeanne Paulsen), the mother of Richard and Geoffrey as well as John, is an éminence grise behind the throne. Elich, who gives John a reptilian quality, also endows him with the pathetic air of a man who had older and smarter brothers, and who remained dominated by his mother in adulthood. When he cries, "My mother! Dead?" something goes visibly out of him. It's a nuanced performance by Elich, and it holds much of the focus in the latter half of the play. The problem is, "King John" is not John's story but the Bastard's. It is the Bastard who has the more developed arc, seeing the cynicism and misuse of power at first with surprise, later assuming an air of cynicism of his own but finally coming down on the side of England rather than self-interest, the only major character on the side of truth and honor. The key speech is the one in Act Two in which the Bastard identifies "commodity" — self-interest, greed, a go-along-to-get-along ethic — as the problem. He's seen a cynical deal between John and France, a brokered marriage to effect a truce that allows John to keep what he can, and he's stunned. He rails at commodity — "that daily break-vow ... this bawd, this broker, this all-changing word." Cardinal Pandulph is the example par excellence, the most evil character in a nasty lot, a Machiavelli played with zesty malevolence by Derrick Lee Weeden. But the play is filled with commodity-servers, weaklings, turncoats and fools of time. The Bastard announces that commodity will be his master, too, but of course, it won't. But Millán plays the Bastard as such a consistently militant hothead, a concept one assumes Sipes shares, that we never see his character develop inwardly, and our eyes keep turning to Elich's John. This muddies Shakespeare's framing of the truth-versus-commodity problem that's the point of the play. It is the only major flaw in a production that's otherwise taut and entertaining. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems Windermere Van Vleet Men's Clothing Southern Oregon Loans --> GMAT Prep Fundraisers Send Flowers Texas Electric Choice Entertainment Guide --> Casinos Canada Trunks, Footlocker Online Casino Reviews Online poker at AbsolutePoker.com Advertisement s Advertisement