"The River Bride" at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

A trip to Ashland, Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has become an annual summer tradition in my family. The festival is an almost-year-round phenomenon, with over 100 performers (backed by a huge number of designers, directors, producers, stage managers, crew, etc.) performing 11 plays in rotating repertory from February until early November on three stages. The logistics alone are staggering, but the results are generally wonderful.

In its 80 years, the festival has grown beyond its original, exclusive devotion to Shakespeare, and now produces quite a number of other works, ranging from classics to modern pieces, new commissions (including a series of plays focused on American history), and musicals. As the largest theater of its kind in the country, a play produced at Ashland reaches a huge audience. So it's great to see them including works by new and lesser-known artists.

One such artist is Marisela Treviño Orta, author of "The River Bride." I'm fortunate to know Marisela a little bit, from sponsoring a production of her play "Heart Shaped Nebula" last year at the Shotgun Players. So when she told me that OSF had selected "The River Bride" for this season, I was excited because not only would I get to see one of her plays in a major theater but perhaps also get some insight into the production process. The show opened in late February, and closes on July 7, so this was the penultimate performance.

The Play

"The River Bride" is an adaptation of a Amazonian folk tale about river dolphins (botos, in Portugese) who come ashore for three days in June every year to seek wives. Members of my family had heard and read versions of this story when we visited the Peruvian Amazon last year.

In the play, a fisherman and his future son-in-law, Duarte, pull a man, Moises, from the river in their fishing net, and his presence brings disruption to the family. Duarte is engaged to marry the fisherman's younger daughter, Belmira. Moises seems to have eyes for her sister, Helena. From there, nothing goes quite as expected.

The set is simple, but fairly elegant. We have a pier, sometimes a boat, and a house on the river that is designated just by a frame. The simplicity suits the setting, and doesn't detract from the play. The writing is spare, but clear, and leaves room for the players to fill in with acting.

The Performance

 Unfortunately, I thought the acting was a bit flat. I'm not sure whether it's just fatigue at the end of the run, but several of the players just didn't seem to have much energy. There was some confusion, but quite muted, when they drew Moises from the river, but everyone seemed to take in stride that a fully-dressed man had thus arrived. Though Helena and her parents displayed some life and emotion later on, the rest was noticeably unaffected, particularly Duarte. I had noticed the same kind of flat affect from this actor in last season's "Much Ado About Nothing," where he seemed quite out of place as Claudio, so it seems to be kind of his style. I wish director Laurie Woolery had made some different choices there, as I thought the play deserved a more vibrant performance.

On the other hand, the play was well received by the audience. It didn't bring down the house, but it was warmly acknowledged at the end.

The Lead-Up

Having followed Marisela's descriptions of the play development process through workshops and rehearsals, I felt like I learned quite a bit about how OSF develops a new play, which was cool. Her several-times-a-day postings on Twitter, plus some longer bits on Facebook, gave an insight into what she and the cast and crew were up to, so that made me extra interested to see the result.

The Follow-Up

Ultimately, "The River Bride" is not a big play, and in some ways it seemed a little undersized for the large stage in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. In retrospect, it might have been a more affecting play in the more intimate setting of the smaller Thomas Theatre. But still I thought it was a wonderful premiere to showcase an up-and-coming playwright's work. I just wish the performance itself had been a bit stronger.