Word: oberon
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...conflict from the text--except for an amusing pre-marital spat between Theseus and Hippolyta that makes some dramatic sense but seems only marginally present in Shakespeare's original. Everywhere else, the conflicts in this production neatly fit into a world thrown out of kilter by the feud between Oberon and Titania, the presiding deities. The explosive initial entrance of the lovers and Egeus, grunting and panting, or the encounter between Puck and one of Titania's fairies, each bristling, spitting and snarling like primates in some mating ritual--scenes like these present a quarrel-lust that grips like...
...characterization of the upper and lower orders of the fairy-world matches. Kenneth Ryan's Oberon pompously barks his lengthy speeches as if entranced by their weight; Carmen de Lavallade's Titania flexes her body in superhuman ways and says more with it than most performers manage with the help of Shakespeare's verse; the quartet of fairies in her train--dressed in skintight body suits, adorned with tails and extended fingers--is menacingly inhuman. Their lullaby for the sleeping queen, miles distant from both Mendelssohn and Purcell, sounds exactly like a chorus of watchful insects...
...Mark Linn-Baker's Puck, a nasty demon who sticks his tongue out and rasps at friend and foe. His satyr's outfit and white makeup don't distance him from humankind nearly so much as his utter indifference to pain and suffering in others. When Oberon orders him to undo the effects of his mistake on the lovers and to anoint Lysander's eyes with the potion that will restore his love for Hermia, he nearly fouls up again and gives Demetrius the charm. He says "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" spitefully, not compassionately, and sounds like...
...Hermia separate "as may well be said becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid" before they fall asleep, roll towards each other and exchange places before waking up. Even Linn-Baker's alien Puck adds comic touches, hopping to his sing-song tetrameter or grimacing with impatience at Oberon's bombast...
DIED. Merle Oberon, 68, arrestingly beautiful cinemactress who rose to fame in the '30s and '40s in such classics as Wuthering Heights and The Scarlet Pimpernel; after a stroke; in Los Angeles. Oberon was born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson on the island of Tasmania. Educated in India, she left for England in 1928, worked as an extra and dance hostess until she met and married Film Producer Alexander Korda. Her 1933 portrayal of Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII made her a star. Divorcing Korda in 1945, she went on to play such...