CEDAR CITY — Although recent events have made calls for greater compassion and understanding frequent, 2018 doesn’t have a monopoly on social issues such as racism, religious persecution and sexism — and Utah Shakespeare Festival’s administration hopes the upcoming season reminds patrons that conversations about tolerance are not new.
“It’s always important,” said Frank Mack, who joined USF in September as its new executive producer. “It was important during Shakespeare’s time … and it’s important now.”
The festival, which kicks off June 28 and runs through Oct. 13, features a lineup of eight shows — including four Shakespeare plays, a musical adaptation of a Mark Twain novel, a comedy about an Englishman visiting the South and a one-man retelling of a Homer epic — that the festival’s artistic director Brian Vaughn said all consider how society can “come to tolerance in an intolerant world.”
This recurring theme of tolerance wasn’t exactly intentional when the administrative staff began selecting the 2018 season more than a year ago. With the festival’s Complete-the-Canon and History Cycle initiatives to consider, parts of the 2018 lineup came naturally, but Vaughn and others on staff began to notice an overarching theme.
“This idea of the adverse effects of intolerance on our collective humanity just sort of rose to the top and then we said, ‘Well what if we just sort of built our season around this idea?’” said Vaughn, who will be performing as Iago in “Othello” and the Poet in “An Iliad” in addition to his duties as artistic director. “And that theme is woven in all of (the productions) when you look at them as a collective whole.”
Many of the shows feature characters who face intolerance in their own way — such as Shylock, a Jewish money changer in “The Merchant of Venice”; Jim, a black slave on the run for freedom in “Big River”; and Charlie, a stranger in an awkward situation in “The Foreigner” — which Vaughn said gives theater patrons plenty to think about.
“I believe that theater is a transformative art form in the sense that somebody comes into the theater and they can hopefully have an experience that transcends their state of who they are right now to make them think differently,” he said. “(Plays) can make us question our own sense of being right now. … Plays like ‘Big River’ … (can help) us see how far we’ve come and yet how much farther we need to go.”
Below is the complete list of 2018 Utah Shakespeare Festival productions — and Vaughn’s and Mack’s perspective on how each fits into this thread of tolerance:
‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’
Sir John Falstaff — the aging knight with an attraction to vices and a disdain for work — returns to the USF stage in Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” this time in a love story of sorts as Falstaff turns a lustful eye toward two housewives.
USF’s take on “Merry Wives” sets it “a bit closer to now,” Vaughn said, with an early 20th century setting that puts the emphasis on female empowerment and the suffragette movement.
As an added bonus, longtime festivalgoers may recognize John Ahlin as he reprises the role of Falstaff, which he played in the festival’s two-part production of “Henry IV.”
• Dates: June 28-Sept. 8
• Showtimes: Days vary but all performances are at 8 p.m.
• Location: Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre
• Price: $20-$71 Monday-Wednesday, $24-$75 Thursday-Friday
• Content advisory: According to USF, the show’s main plot deals with a man “hilariously and unsuccessfully trying to seduce two housewives,” and with that, contains “some bawdy humor.”
‘Othello’
Shakespeare’s tragedy “Othello” — “a story of a general from an African country in Europe at a time when racial prejudice was far different than it is now and very severe,” as Mack put it — is a tale of jealousy and betrayal. When Othello, a Moorish nobleman, doesn’t select Iago, a Venetian soldier, for promotion, Iago makes it his quest to destroy Othello and everything he holds dear.
• Dates: June 28-Oct. 13
• Showtimes: Days vary, with some performances at 2 p.m. and others at 8 p.m.
• Location: Eileen and Allen Anes Studio Theatre
• Price: $50 Monday-Wednesday, $54 Thursday-Friday
• Content advisory: According to USF, the show contains “some violence and some adult and sometimes bawdy dialogue” that makes it unsuitable for preteens.
‘The Foreigner’
When a chronically shy English science fiction writer named Charlie visits a lodge in Georgia on a much-needed vacation, he is terrified at the thought of having to socialize with strangers. In an effort to help Charlie feel more at ease, Charlie’s friend Froggy LeSueur tells the lodge owner that Charlie is from a foreign country and doesn’t speak English. What ensues is what Mack referred to as “one of the funniest American plays ever written” in which “(audience members) end up experiencing (the) story as if we were foreigners in a foreign land and place.”
• Dates: June 29-Oct. 13
• Showtimes: Days vary, with some performances at 2 p.m. and others at 8 p.m.
• Location: Randall L. Jones Theatre
• Price: $32-$71 Monday-Wednesday, $36-$75 Thursday-Friday
• Content advisory: According to USF, the show contains “a very slight amount of mild language and deals with racial prejudice” but is suitable for all audiences.
‘Henry VI Part One’
Shakespeare enthusiasts will rejoice this season with the USF's production of “Henry VI Part One.”
USF’s website refers to it as a “seldom-produced history play,” making this season a “rare opportunity … to see it fully produced.”
“Henry VI” picks up after the sudden death of Henry V as the war between England and France continues. The story features Joan of Arc, dealing "with some religious persecution with Joan as a self-proclaimed prophet of France leading her country to victory and how the English (handled) that in a very turbulent (time in) English history,” according to Vaughn.
• Dates: June 29-Sept. 6
• Showtimes: Days vary but all performances are at 8 p.m.
• Location: Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre
• Price: $20-$71 Monday-Wednesday, $24-$75 Thursday-Friday
• Content advisory: According to USF, the show contains some violence “related to the battles of war.”
‘Big River’
Twain’s well-loved novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” comes to life in the musical adaptation, “Big River,” which tells of the travels of Huck Finn and his friend, Jim, a slave, as they travel down the Mississippi to help Jim find freedom.
“One of the things that Twain achieved in ‘Huckleberry Finn’ was the creation of a character who was a slave but (who Twain) depicted as a human being and not as property, which was a bit radical, certainly at the time when he was writing,” Mack said.
• Dates: June 30-Sept. 1
• Showtimes: Days vary, with some performances at 2 p.m. and others at 8 p.m.
• Location: Randall L. Jones Theatre
• Price: $32-$71 Monday-Wednesday, $36-$75 Thursday-Friday
• Content advisory: According to USF, the show contains the use of the N-word and “forces audiences to confront the inhumanity of slavery and intolerance, which is far more insidious and toxic than the offensive language associated with it,” but otherwise can be a “thoughtful and heart-warming piece of theatre for any audience.”
‘The Merchant of Venice’
Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” combines elements of love, humor, racism and greed to create what USF’s website calls a “controversial tragicomedy.
Vaughn said the play is about “marginalized voices,” a theme amplified by USF’s decision to cast multiple roles traditionally played by male actors with female actors in this production.
“This sort of amps up that idea of it's not just about religious persecution but there may also be some other themes that are woven into this play also that are actually very relevant in the sense of the ‘voice of the other’ coming through,” Vaughn said.
• Dates: June 30-Sept. 7
• Showtimes: Days vary but all performances are at 8 p.m.
• Location: Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre
• Price: $20-$71 Monday-Wednesday, $24-$75 Thursday-Friday
• Content advisory: According to USF, the play contains the Bard’s “usual innuendo and puns but is suitable for most audiences.”
‘An Iliad’
Vaughn will take the stage as the Poet in “An Iliad,” a modern-day, one-man retelling of Homer’s “The Iliad,” which Vaughn said at its heart “deals with people coming to term with rage and how we find serenity in a world that’s filled with hate.”
• Dates: July 12-Aug. 22 and Sept. 18-Oct. 9
• Showtimes: Days vary. Most performances are at 8 p.m., with a few 2 p.m. performances later in the season.
• Location: Randall L. Jones Theatre
• Price: $32-$71 Monday-Wednesday, $36-$75 Thursday-Friday
• Content advisory: According to USF, the show is “emotionally intense and involves descriptions of warfare and inhumanity,” making it suitable for all audiences except preteens “who may not be prepared for the intensity of the storyline.”
‘The Liar’
Based on the French farce “Le Menteur” by Pierre Corneille and adapted by playwright David Ives, “The Liar” follows “a lover who can’t tell the truth and his servant who can’t tell a lie,” according to Vaughn. Add in “mistaken lovers, suspicious fathers, sparkling romance and frothy comedy” and you have what USF’s website calls “one of the Western world’s greatest comedies.”
Vaughn said he finds the story particularly relevant in today’s world of fake news.
“You don’t have to look very far on television or on your phone to question what is truth and what is fiction in this world right now,” he said.
• Dates: Sept. 14-Oct. 13
• Showtimes: Days vary, with some performances at 2 p.m. and others at 8 p.m.
• Location: Randall L. Jones Theatre
• Price: $32-$71 Monday-Wednesday, $36-$75 Thursday-Friday
• Content advisory: According to USF, the play contains “some adult language and humor and sexual innuendo,” which means it may not be suitable for preteens and younger teenagers.
Note: Initially, the 2018 Utah Shakespeare Festival season included a new play, "Pearl's in the House," but as of June 22, the festival has removed this play from its lineup. In a press release, festival organizers stated that due to "culturally insensitive communications issued by the (play's) guest director/creator regarding casting" the festival is cancelling all productions.