Globe set to launch its fifth annual Shakespeare Festival

By PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, June 11, 2008 2:17 PM PDT ∞

Graham Hamilton as “Romeo” and Heather Wood as “Juliet” in The Old Globe’s 2008 Summer Shakespeare Festival production of ROMEO AND JULIET, by William Shakespeare, directed by Richard Seer, playing in repertory with THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR and ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL June 14 �“ September 28 in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre; photo by Craig Schwartz.

Globe Associate Artist James Winker as the “King of France” and Kimberly Parker Green as “Helena” in The Old Globe’s 2008 Summer Shakespeare Festival production of ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, by William Shakespeare, directed by Festival Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, playing in repertory with ROMEO AND JULIET and THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR June 14 �“ September 28 in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre; photo by Craig Schwartz.

Katie MacNichol as “Mistress Ford,” Eric Hoffmann as “Falstaff” and Celeste Ciulla as “Mistress Page” in The Old Globe’s 2008 Summer Shakespeare Festival production of THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, by William Shakespeare, directed by Paul Mullins, playing in repertory with ROMEO AND JULIET and ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL June 14 �“ September 28 in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre; photo by Craig Schwartz.

On the surface, the three William Shakespeare plays that make up this year's Old Globe Summer Shakespeare Festival ---- "Romeo and Juliet," "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "All’s Well That Ends Well" ---- couldn't be more different.

One's a tragedy of star-crossed young lovers, one's a zany comedy about a rotund, greedy knight deluded about his charms with women, and the third is a problematic black comedy about a commoner who tricks a nobleman into marriage by getting pregnant.

But Darko Tresnjak, resident artistic director of the Old Globe and founding director of the 5-year-old festival, said that all three plays have a theme in common.

"They're all about love and family or about desire from the tragic, comic and bittersweet perspective," said Tresnjak. "There's a generational rift in each family, and they're plays about headstrong teenagers and the older generation who struggle with how much freedom is too much freedom."

As in past years, the festival will present three plays in repertory with a shared set and the same 27-member cast. The festival opens Saturday on the Globe's outdoor stage, the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, and continues six nights a week through Sept. 28.

Tresnjak directs "All's Well That Ends Well." "The Merry Wives of Windsor" will be directed by Paul Mullins (who helmed "Measure for Measure" last summer and "Macbeth" in 2006). And "Romeo and Juliet" will be staged by Richard Seer (director of the Old Globe's MFA acting program and stage director for "Vincent in Brixton," "Blue/Orange" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?").

"All's Well" will open the festival this weekend, "Romeo" kicks off Wednesday and "Merry Wives" gets under way June 21. Because about 30 percent of the festival's business comes from out-of-town visitors, Old Globe Executive Producer Lou Spisto said the festival schedule offers 18 occasions where showgoers can see all three plays on three consecutive nights, beginning July 15-17 and continuing once or twice weekly through Sept. 26-28.

"All's Well That Ends Well"

Written sometime around 1601 to 1605, "All's Well" is classified as a comedy, but historians usually call the rarely performed work one of Shakespeare's "problem plays" because of its strange combination of fairy-tale romance and cynicism.

It's the story of Helena, the orphaned daughter of a doctor who falls in love with Bertram, a French count's son. When Helena cures the dying king, he offers her the hand of any man in the French court. She chooses Bertram, but he rejects her because of her lowly station and he heads off to war. Helena follows him, sneaks into his bed disguised as another woman and becomes pregnant, forcing Bertram into a "happy" marriage.

Tresnjak calls Helena one of his favorite all-time theatrical heroines.

"She goes through moments of despair and pulls herself together again and again. And she's the first woman doctor in the recorded history of theater."

Inspired by the E.M. Forster novel "A Room With a View," Tresnjak said he has reset the play in Europe during World War I. Graham Hamilton (star of the Globe's "Vincent in Brixton," and also playing Romeo this summer) will play Bertram, and Kimberly Parker Green, a student in the Globe's MFA program, plays Helena. "She's got a real self-awareness about her," Tresnjak said. "She understands her anger."

Running dates: Saturday, Sunday, June 26-28; July 8, 11, 15, 18, 24 and 31; Aug. 3, 6, 9, 12, 14, 20, 24 and 27; Sept. 4, 9, 17, 21 and 26.

"Romeo and Juliet"

Shakespeare's beloved but tragic romance is the story of doomed love between the teenage members of two warring families in 14th-century Verona. When their families and circumstances conspire to keep them apart, Romeo and Juliet take their own lives.

Director Seer said his inspiration for this production was a real-life news event ---- the cultlike suicide deaths of 17 teens in and around a small village in South Wales over the past year.

"Romeo and Juliet are making a suicide pact, too, but they're not depressed about it," Seer said. "They see it as a way to be together for all eternity. The community in Wales is dysfunctional, and it's the same here. The entire community gets involved in the fate of these two young people. Every person is somehow culpable in their deaths."

Seer, who spent part of his sabbatical last fall in northern Italy, has set the play in the Italian Renaissance era, and the look of the play is inspired by two Renaissance painters, the florid, sensual Botticelli and the dark, moody Caravaggio.

"The first act is set in Botticelli-land," Seer said, "and then we move through the play to Caravaggio. The costumes and the lighting gradually darken with the plot."

Graham Hamilton plays Romeo, and Juliet is played by Heather Wood, a young actress who Seer says captures the youth and joy of the 14-year-old Juliet.

Running dates: Wednesday, June 19 and 29; July 1, 2, 9, 10, 12, 13, 17, 22, 23, 27 and 29; Aug. 2, 10, 15, 16, 21, 26, 29 and 30; Sept. 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 19, 23, 24, 25 and 28.

"The Merry Wives of Windsor"

Said to have been written at the request of Queen Elizabeth, who loved the character of Falstaff in Shakespeare's earlier history plays, "Merry Wives" finds the fat, jovial knight John Falstaff scheming to win the sexual favors and fortunes of two noblemen's wives. But the women figure out Falstaff's ruse and beat him at his own game.

Director Paul Mullins said "Merry Wives" is unique among Shakespeare's plays because he set the story in his own time and focused the action not on royalty or nobles, but on ordinary people concerned with their domestic problems.

"The genius of Falstaff is that he's different in each play and he deceives himself so much," Mullins said, adding that because Falstaff has such an overconfident swagger and the action takes place all in one small town, he thought it would work well set in the American West, circa 1875. Actor Eric Hoffman will play the cowboy hat-wearing, six-gun-toting Falstaff.

"The aim is to have a good time," Mullins said. "This is flat-out supposed to be fun."

Running Dates: June 21 and 22; July 3, 5, 6, 16, 19, 20, 25, 26, 30; Aug. 1, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 19, 22, 23, 28 and 31; Sept. 2, 6, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18 and 27.

Old Globe Summer Shakespeare Festival

When: Opens Saturday and runs through Sept. 28; showtimes, 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays

Where: Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, Old Globe complex, Balboa Park, San Diego

Tickets: $29-$64

Phone: (619) 234-5623

Web: www.theoldglobe.org

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