Stage Review (OSF) - Virgins to Villains
Stage Review - Virgins to Villains (My Journey with Shakespeare’s Women)
Presented By: Oregon Shakespeare Festival - Ashland, OR
Show Run: May 16 - July 19, 2024
Date Reviewed: Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
The definition of a “festival” is “a day or period of celebration”. The implication is that the period of time for a festival is short, but for those who criticize the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s name as a misnomer, I generally feel that the name does fit, not necessarily because of the timing (the season runs from March through October), but more precisely because the entire organization is dedicated to the celebration of all things Shakespeare. And no, that does not mean they need solely to put up productions that were written by Shakespeare, but to their credit most of what they do produce or present on their three stages are at the very least Shakespeare-adjacent, meaning that they are either from the Bard, or they are inspired by him and his work. One such example of a work that is inspired by Shakespeare is Virgins to Villains (My Journey with Shakespeare’s Women), the one-person play written and performed by Robin Goodrin Nordli. The piece is part TED Talk, part autobiographical history lesson, and part thesis on the power of theatre in overcoming personal trauma and the struggle of being human. Robin has a history of developing works that present her perspective on performing Shakespeare from the female perspective and having performed 73 roles in 57 different productions of 29 Shakespeare plays gives the playwright the advantage of her particular perspective.
Robin’s theatrical experience began when she saw Hamlet earlier in her life, and as she says here that the show “opened her mind”. As she progressed through high school, college, and beyond, so many roles were instrumental in forming the woman she has become, teaching her lessons, like the importance of being herself, and getting her through her roughest moments. As she puts it, at one point her “romantic comedy life morphed into a tragic play”, but while a lack of theatre contributed to that low point in her life, reclaiming that part of her helped to rise up again. Robin says that she is happiest when she has theatre in her life, and that’s clear in the way she presents this material in Virgins to Villains.
On the presentation side, I say that it feels like a Ted Talk simply because the way that the show is constructed, it’s very academic. The set, with its desks and books, presents this theme before Robin even takes the stage. When she does arrive, Robin spends the next 90-ish minutes taking the audience through her life, its ups and downs, trials and triumphs, all sewn together with the thread of Shakespeare. Her poignant story of her doomed marriage when theatre was lacking in her life and her celebration of her current partnership, in which theatre is front and center each put a fine point on how theatre gets in your blood and becomes part of your DNA, without it there’s just an empty hole that can’t be filled. Her telling of this chronologically, with her digressions into the lessons learned through her life with Shakespeare’s characters, all the while backdropped by a screen on which scenes from her past are projected feels a bit lecturious. Don’t get me wrong, Robin is an engaging storyteller, and the times when she steps out of herself to recreate one of the many characters that she has portrayed on stage, she’s marvelous. She’s also an expert at portraying both sides of a two-way conversation, something not everyone is good at. Some of the storytelling feels dry, but that’s the exception, not the rule. Generally, Robin is funny, she engages very well with Micah J. Stieglitz’s projections, even talking back to some of them, and she’s subtle, able to generate a reaction with a look. All of this combines to make the overall experience of Virgins to Villains an entertaining one.
And speaking of subtlety, Valerie Pope’s lighting design is well described by that word. Most of the lighting changes here are subtle, and reflect the mood of the piece of the story that Robin is telling. The overall design of the show plays well in the space of OSF’s Thomas Theatre. In one-person shows, there are a few things I look for. The first is how well the space is used. Here, under the direction of Penny Metropulos, Robin uses all of the stage, the prop books placed in a way that works with the storytelling and provides fluid movement to all corners of the stage. Production Manager/Sound Designer Joshua Horvath has created an environment that feels right for the task.
Virgins to Villains (My Journey with Shakespeare’s Women) feels like a perfect fit for this year’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival season. It depicts the influence that theatre, and Shakespeare, can have on a life, and the fulfillment that it can bring. And while the show at times feels academic, Robin Goodrin Nordli is an engaging, funny, and thoughtful storyteller who clearly has a passion for the Bard, is proud of her performances of her work, and is not afraid to let herself be vulnerable in her life’s reflection.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of Virgins to Villains runs on stage at the Thomas Theatre in Ashland, OR through July 19. For more information on the festival, its history and programming, or this show and how to purchase tickets, visit https://www.osfashland.org/.
Photo credit: Jenny Graham
