Sanskrit Comes to Ashland

The Clay Cart is not a religious play; the OSF program describes it as a social comedy. But comparing this play to western dramas and comedies, the most revealing and ultimately inspiring difference to me was the kind of conflict that creates the dramatic action. Yes, there is a villain (though he’s played as a ridiculous figure from the start) and human foibles that lead to complications, but the overall motives are most often generosity, loyalty, empathy and love. As one character proclaims: “If a man sets his mind on virtue, there is nothing he may not dare.”

It was an inspired idea to bring The Clay Cart to OSF, and this funny, moving, vibrant production has to be the highlight of the season.

On the other hand, OSF’s current A Midsummer Night’s Dream is dreadfully old-fashioned. You’ve seen it before a hundred times, with other plays that used to be by Shakespeare. The Duke of Athens is a New Jersey mobster of the only ethnic group it’s still permissible to mock: Italians. (We’re all in the Mafia, as you know.) The enchanted forest is also somehow a disco, the fairies are really … well, you get the idea.

I suppose I’m jaded — the hundreds of junior high school students in the audience were screaming from the moment the lights came up — or maybe something else accounts for my negative reaction. In future, however, I would appreciate a better indication in the program notes of what I am about to see. Or in cases like this, what I will avoid.

Coming upon the North Coast this weekend: An encore performance of the Dell’Arte MFA Ensemble’s Between Two Winters at the Carlo Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., before its run the following weekend at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. The puppets of the Shoe Box Variety Show perform at the Arcata Playhouse Friday at 7 p.m., and Saturday at 2 p.m. And 7 p.m. Ferndale Rep performs a staged reading of Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell on Sunday afternoon only, at 2 p.m.

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