We came for the plays. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is now in its 75 the year, and legendary among our friends for its quaility. We've liked it, and we're back again to close down the season. Tonight's Macbeth is the last performance of the festival for 2009.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Yesterday Matinee was Alls Well that Ends Well. Its one of those Shakespeare plays that presents cultural difficulties for modern viewers. The plot is that a servant girl falls in love with the son of the count. The young man goes to the king and hopes to find glory in the wars. The king is sick, and his doctors can't help him. The girl, daughter of the greatest physician of her time, has his secrets and hopes that by curing the king she can win the boy. She pledges her life as guarantee for the cure, and asks to marry her pick of the court if it works. It works, she picks the son. He's not for it, refuses, angers the king and ends up in a shotgun wedding. Next day he sends his still virgin wife home, and goes off to the wars. Up to here, possibly ok with everyone.

He says he will bed her, which is to say become a real husband, if she gives him the ring which he wears on hs finger, when she is carrying his child. She dutifly goes home, blames herself for putting him in the danger of the wars, and leaves on a pilgrimage. He wins glory and tries to seduce a townswoman in Florence. But our girl accidently meets the towngirl, when pilgriming in Florence and works a deal where by townie asks the ring as the price of her virginity, gets it, and sets up date for delivery of her part. But its dark, and the deliverer is our heronine instead - who becomes pregnant, and gets the ring from the townie. Goes back to the king's court, meets her husband, who continues to be a grade-A creep, and saves his life by delivering the ring and explaining the affair to the King. They live happily ever after.

Despite the male lead being a character who is impossible to like, and continually thinking our heroine has a screw loose for pursuing him, the performance was very enjoyable. I suppose its like the zen koan about cutting the cat in half. You cant understand it by thinking of the unfortunate cat.



It was halloween of course and everyone in town it seemed was costumed for the day. Decorations everywhere, shrieks on the hardware store p.a. system - like that. Ashland has three resident theater groups and a college, and Ashland does halloween. They had a huge parade to cap off the daytime celebrations. I snapped this jac o'lantern the next morning.

In the evening we saw a new play, about the writing of Macbeth - which we see tonight, get it? called Equivocation. Wonderful play, unclear what it was exactly about, but enjoyed every moment of it. Don't miss it if you get the chance to see it. It being the last night of the premiere performance the author was in the audience, and got to be in the midst of the standing ovation with calls of "Author, Author". Probably a good moment for him.

Next morning I'm off on a long excercise walk. I go down the hill, round the bend, follow the old road until it crosses the freeway, over I go and as I'm nearing the end of the bridge I look down at the embankment and there I find



lying on the ground. I get off the bridge, hop the fence, fight thru the blackberrys and they are mine. According to the label they were grown in Columia. How sad, thinks I, that they come all the way from Columbia only to get tossed off the Old State Highway bridge. So I took them back to the motel and gave them to my sweetie.

We saw The Music Man in this afternoon's matinee. "There's trouble in River City" comes from that play. Who would have thought it. Enjoyed it a lot, altho I didn't think the female lead sang in the right style and it was difficult to understand her lyrics. Every musician piece - and it is a musical comedy - got applause and at the end, which was the final performance for the year - there was a long standing ovation.

Outside was this tree.