The magic of Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival pulls you in as soon as you turn off Snake Hill Road in Garrison.
Former fairways lie fallow left and right. There are lawns and wildflowers and spreading trees for shady picnics. Park your car and follow the signs to the top of a hill. Your reward there is a spectacular Hudson River vista that opens the senses to possibility and portends of something special about to happen.
From this height, you can imagine tall ships plying the river and Revolutionary War troop movements around West Point. These hills and hollows were traipsed by patriots and spies, marked by heroism and treachery. So, too, is the sandy stage under the festival tent this summer.
After you stow your picnic gear and settle into your seat, you'll be asked to cast your imagination back even further -- and farther -- to the realms of two young kings and, starting Labor Day weekend, to a lady too long in waiting.
This spot is ripe for imagining.
There is certainly magic afoot, which helps the imagining along. There's a rocking production of "Love's Labor's Lost" with music (co-written with Andre Pluess) by its director Amanda Dehnert. There's a gender-bending "Henry V," directed by festival artistic director Davis McCallum.
They are performed in repertory under the festival tent through month's end, with a new work, "Penelope," (about the long-waiting wife of Odysseus) set to arrive when the calendar turns to September.
SEE THE FULL RUNNING CALENDAR AT HVSHAKESPEARE.ORG.
The best way to experience the wonder of what the festival has to offer is to visit on back-to-back nights (or as close to it as possible), to see the same troupe of actor-dancer-singer-musician-magicians pivot expertly from comedy to history, from love to war.
Their pivot is something to behold.
A magical pivot
One night, you'll see a young king and his friends signing a list of strict rules about scholarship and sobriety, chastity and single-minded purpose -- only to begin breaking all of their edicts before the ink of their signatures dries. You see, a French princess and her three friends are on their way, and they will test and manipulate the kingly quartet.
On the next night, witness another young king, who must rise to the moment and put away the sowing of wild oats. Henry's having an existential crisis, cornered by expectation and tradition.
Featured players
One night, Melissa Mahoney is singing and playing guitar and bass as the put-upon Jacquenetta. The next, she is the French herald Montjoy, who bedevils Henry with calls for his ransom then brings the news that Henry has carried the day at Agincourt. This being Hudson Valley, Mahoney also plays Nell Quickly and Jamy, making each character distinct in performances that will linger in the mind long after the tent is stowed for the season.
One night, Luis Quintero plays Costard, whose red clown nose marks him the fool in "Love's Labor's." The next, he's Pistol, one of the ne'er-do-wells who once caroused with Prince Hal, the future King Henry. Quintero has energy and confidence and musical chops to burn and brings a twinkling spirit to each role. Pistol's late comeuppance, at the hands of the Welshman Fluellen (the wondrous Nance Williamson) will change forever the way you think about leeks.
One night, the excellent Sean McNall is the bumbling academic Holofernes, spewing Latin to set himself above all and rendering himself aloof and a fool. The next, he is the boy and the all-seeing chorus who bids us focus our imaginations to make the stage a battlefield and whose words bring clarity to the proceedings. Hudson Valley is also a training ground for new players whose command for the meter is a work in progress. McNall is a solid constant.
Stephen Michael Spencer's is another indelible and undeniable presence, whether as the linguistically adept Berowne -- who holds himself above his friends, but falls to love, nonetheless -- or, he next night, as the preening, silly Dauphin in "Henry V," handing out tricolors to audience members before Agincourt.
One night, Omar Shafiuzzaman is the king of Navarre, palling around in the woods. The next, he is the French princess Katharine, a spoil of war. In an inspired bit of staging, Katherine learns the language of her future husband over a game of tennis. She lobs back the English words Williamson's Alice volleys to her.
And where else but Hudson Valley can bungee cords become horses? No place that I know of.
'Harry in the night'
Carl Howell, whose Romeo from years ago will never leave me, is back under the tent, as Dull one night and as Nym, the French Constable, and Michael Williams the next. It is as this last character that Howell shines brightest, triggering a crisis of confidence in the king.
The night before Agincourt, a disguised Henry takes the temperature of his men by traveling from fire to fire. He gets an earful from Williams, who declares: "There be few that die well that die in a battle."
When Henry tells Williams and his friends that he has heard the king say he would not be ransomed, Williams mocks the king's motivation, saying that Henry has only said that to inspire his men to fight and that it won't matter to Henry if his men die. Henry replies that if that were so, he would never trust the king again, which Williams again mocks, saying kings don't care if their men trust them or not.
What comes through this beautifully rendered exchange, a stirring pas de deux between soldier and (disguised) royal, is a debate on the nature of leadership: Is it all about motivation to an end -- win this battle, on a French field -- or is there a deeper connection at work, a responsibility on the part of the leader for those they lead?
Howell is pitch-perfect, capturing Williams' disdain and parrying each line from Harry in the night. When they part -- with a challenge they'll settle after the battle, if they survive it -- it is as equals who have each made their case, though the outcome is uncertain.
Two words: Emily. Ota.
Emily Ota? Magnificent.
One night, she is the French gentlelady Maria who takes to the woods readily, bagging a deer and, perhaps, a husband, if all goes well. The next night, she's a formidable Henry V, making war on the French and navigating unsteadily the path of power after a pre-battle breakdown.
McCallum has struck gold in casting Ota as Henry, an actor with heart and fire.
The well-loved speeches are here -- "Once more unto the breach" and the "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers" -- delivered faithfully and with passion.
But Ota's Henry will be remembered, with advantages, for his vulnerability, for the crisis of confidence in the damp pre-dawn air at Agincourt when he thinks of how easily his men sleep, and how difficult it is for him to close his eyes and take rest.
It is the burden of leadership, the heft of the crown, that keeps him up at night. And what does he have that his men don't? Ceremony.
The encounter with Williams works on Henry's psyche until he realizes just how cornered he is, how much is wrapped up in the band of gold that encircles his head. Henry explodes in a line Ota howls from the pit of her soul that sums up the royal burden: "We must bear all!'
There is a coda to the battle. There are spoils to be collected, and Ota is as beguiling in this as she is compelling the rest of the night. Having won the battle, Henry must woo his princess. They circle the sandy stage, Ota capturing Henry's ill-at-ease as Shafiuzzaman's Katherine catches every third word but gets the gist.
"Tell me, most fair Katherine, will you have me?" Henry asks. "Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks of an empress; Take me by the hand, and say 'Harry of England I am thine:' which word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud 'England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Harry Plantagenet is thine.'"
Emily Ota, this summer under a tent off Snake Hill Road and for long in memory, Harry Plantagenet is thine. And we happy few who witnessed it are grateful.
TICKET ALERT: Use code BANDOFBROS to get a special discount on the final two performances of "Henry V," on Aug. 20 and 21. Tickets at hvshakespeare.org.
(Photos by T Charles Erickson)
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