They may be miles apart geographically, but theatrically the American Conservatory Theater and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival are on the same stage. In both ACT's Caucasian Chalk Circle and OSF's Hamlet, the stage is filled with items that are removed before the curtain goes up. All four shows at OSF this past weekend did this and one, The Well, leaves an actor onstage, in character, as the audience bemusedly files out.

Getting the story told is at the heart of ACT director John Doyle's spirited interpretation of Bertholt Brecht's look at parenting and war. Audiences are treated to a constant bombardment of air raid sirens wailing, of bombs exploding and structures tilting and swaying as shaky regimes fall and rise. The stage fills with refugees and soldiers as the deposed first lady (Rene Augesen) gathers jewels and gowns and flees the city, forgetting to take along her child. Young Gruscha (Omoze Idehenre) discovers the abandoned infant and reluctantly runs with it to the dubious safety of the mountains. Gresham is newly engaged to young soldier Simon (Nick Childress); their love story lightens up the dark world of corruption and greed. Doyle doesn't ignore the messages that Brecht throws around like rocks, but he lobs them at audiences who are blinded by the brilliant vaudevillian vignettes.
Narrator Manoel Felciano wraps up both story and message with a song: "What is here should belong to those who deserve it; the children to the motherly, so they may thrive."

Artistic director Bill Rauch opens the OSF season with a stage filled with chairs that are taken away one by one, leaving a grieving son seated before his father's coffin. It is a striking image and one that lets us know that--in spite of ghosts that sign, traveling troupes of hip-hop artists, a broadly comic Polonius, a pouting Ophelia, a gun-toting Laertes, and Rosencrants and Guildenstern as lesbian lovers--we are in for a one-man show about the melancholy Dane. OSF favorite, Dan Donahue carries this role off, although audiences may well leave wondering, "Can there be too much Hamlet in Hamlet?" Donahue, a marvelously physical actor, is all over the stage as he forges new life into the familiar monologues by playing them on top of furniture, on top of impressive stone walls and, in a poignant moment, on his knees in front of his mother. His pretense at madness comes on early and plays like the real thing that makes us wonder just who Horatio is talking about in his speech, "a noble lord is here overcome." This Hamlet is many things, angry, humorous, and ironic--he is raging and feels powerless--and is, indeed, a Hamlet for our time. But noble? Not noticeably.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," proves once again that no one, not even Shakespeare, writes better lines for actors than Tennessee Williams. In this classic, whole monologues turn into transcendent theater. Stephanie Beatriz, as Maggie, dominates the first act as she tries to bring her passive husband, Brick, back to bed. Her desire to get pregnant keeps her hopping like a cat on a hot tin roof. She knows the situation is dire; Big Daddy is dying and he hasn't made a will. Williams' scripts never lack for story, and each of his characters has a primal motivation. Big Daddy is often overplayed, he is big, crude and domineering, and Michael Winters is all that, but in this riveting interpretation, he manages to make his character's soul visible.

Jane Austen's book, Pride and Prejudice, works even better as a play (adapted by Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan), for who can resist a three dimensional Mr. Darcy (Elijah Alexander, properly misunderstood by Elizabeth until the final clinch--oooooh!) All of Austen's familiar characters appear in this classic comedy about love and money, and all come off as delightfully on the stage as they did on the page.

Well is the new kid at the New Theater, but it is holding its own as
actors Terri McMahon takes on writer Lisa Kron's role as an unhappy daughter who can't cure her mother and can't accept her illness. It's a broad comic, but thoughtful, look at what makes us well.

Onstage story-telling is alive and well at both OSF and ACT.

"Caucasian Chalk Circle" runs through Mar 14th at American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St, SF (415 749-2288) www.act-sf.org

Oregon Shakespeare Festival opens seven more plays during the 2010 season that runs through Oct 31st. (541-482-4331) www.osfashland.org

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