The Tempest: The first show of the season

Portland is a wonderland of free Shakespeare for those who are willing to deal with all that this entails.  Our first show of the "season" (which runs from about the second week of June through late Aug) was The Tempest.  Generally, Amanda is not fond of this play, for no particular reason, other than it seems to drag in the final third and few of the characters or their actions are very interesting.  Wendy feels that there are parts of the show that are hard to follow, but that is standard for Shakespeare, part of the package. 

Regardless, Wendy enjoyed the show, as did Amanda.  We went with our friends Coyla and Rachel, plus met up with Rachel's roommate Natalie at Lovejoy Park, a grass-free downtown park/fountain.  Over the years, we have learned to bring foldable chairs, a large sheet for ground cover and various picnic foods to keep us busy while we waited for the show to start.  Usually we arrive about an hour before the show starts to scope out a good spot.  This often gives us an opportunity to see the actors set up the stage, arrange the props and do their sometimes freaky warmups.  This time, however, we also got to hear a local park resident play the harmonica.  Thankfully, he was quite good.

Most Shakespeare in the park in Portland are held away from residential areas, but this time we were, basically, in the front yard of a large urban apartment house.  One of the residents did not like being disturbed by the Bard's work and showed his displeasure by shouting down from his balcony such things as "Shut up!" and "Go away!" and various random noises.  The best was him screaming during the scene where the shipwrecked sailors were lying on the ground, "I pee'd there!"  The whole audience cracked up but the actors carried on as best they could, and soon Mr. Grumpy Pants went back inside.

Another distraction was the harmonica player, who was very drunk.  Not belligerent or rude per se but just a bit too enthusiastic with his guffaws and laughter.  We mean, he was really loud.  But totally enjoying the show.  There is a speech near the final act where The Fool gives that classic speech on drunkenness and the evils of liquor.  While he did so, he indicated the man who by this point was not able to realize that he had become the butt of the joke.  It wasn't mean-spirited but more ironic than anything.

We are still figuring out a rating system for the plays we see but have devised a scale of 0-10 quills (aren't we clever?) Zero quills means we left before the show was done (not due to weather or other circumstances) because we couldn't stand to watch any more.  Eight quills rates good enough that we would go back to see the show again, and ten means it was the greatest show ever.  We will rate the venue separately from the production.  We will each rate each show.

Wendy rated this production a 6.5 because of the special effects (cool parachutes with light up cubes inside that fell  into then floated around the fountain), and that the actors were really good.  She especially like Prospero, who she thought was amazing.  As for the venue, Wendy gave it a 5 because the fountain and the sets were good, but some of the people were distracting, including the drunk guy, the shouter and the gang of disaffected street youth who wandered through the park three quarters of the way through the show.

Amanda gave the production a 6.5 also for the creative use of the fountain, especially during the shipwreck that opens the show, and for the cool things that lit up, making use of the fact that this was a night show.  Most of the acting was adequate with special kudos to the drunken sailor.  She rated the venue a 4, for being a concrete wasteland that must have been uncomfortable for those without chairs, and for the lack of parking.