With less than a month left in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival‘s 2025 season, my husband and I last week realized we had better make some plans to see a few more plays soon. We had seen Into the Woods during the summer in the outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theater, and with the colder nights arriving, we were pleased to find that Julius Caesar was playing indoors at the Angus Bowmer Theater.

We were also glad to learn that we could take advantage of OSF’s rush ticket offer. If playgoers are willing to risk the chance a performance may sell out, they can wait until the evening of a performance and show up at the box office between 6 and 6:30 to purchase up to two tickets per person per performance at 40 percent off the face value of a seat. We felt fairly confident that midweek in the first week of October would pretty much guarantee we could have our choice of several options in whatever price range we wanted. Turns out we were right, and with regular-price tickets ranging between $128 and $46, we opted for something right in the middle, paying $42 each at the discounted rate in Row L.

Tickets in hand and with the curtain set to rise at 8 p.m., we headed off to dinner. Keeping with the Roman setting of the play, we chose to dine at Martino’s, an Italian restaurant conveniently located within steps of the theater. It sits on the upper level of a building overlooking Ashland’s main thoroughfare, lined with shops, galleries and restaurants, and offers a nice outdoor balcony overlooking the lively scene. On this breezy, cool evening, however, we were happy to take a seat at a high-top table in the cozy dining room indoors.

Ashland restaurants are well aware that most of their dinner patrons are headed to the theater, and waitstaff ensure that their guests are served and out the door in a timely fashion. We were surprised, therefore, to find ourselves still waiting for our meal 30 minutes after we’d placed our order. When my husband checked with the bartender (our server not in sight), he didn’t mind telling Harry that the kitchen was understaffed and the owner had instructed the staff not to tell the patrons. Hmmm! Luckily, our dinners arrived shortly thereafter, and we tucked in with haste. Harry enjoyed a rich, creamy fettuccini carbonara with applewood-smoked bacon, peas, caramelized onion and Parmesan, while I chose a perfectly baked eggplant Parmesan covered in a savory marinara sauce and served with a side of fettuccini alfredo. Since we didn’t need to go far to get to the theater, we decided we had time to share a delectable flourless chocolate tart served with a coulis made of mixed Oregon berries.

A few minutes later, we found our way to our seats in the Bowmer, near the middle of Row L. The minimalist set lay before us, stark and monochromatic. There were a great many empty seats, and just after we had settled into our seats, about 10 minutes before the start of the show, an usher came through the upper rows and invited us to move down closer to the stage to the empty seats there. We were pleased to do so and found ourselves near the middle of the third row from the stage . . . a much better vantage point.

I really enjoyed the play, produced in conjunction with the upstart crow collective, a theater company which produces classical plays with racially diverse casts of women and non-binary people. I quickly became immersed in the action, finding the actors inhabiting their characters believably with strength and intensity. I’ve seen Julius Caesar performed several times (and taught it to high school students, as well) and so am quite familiar with the play. Based on the costuming, this version seemed to be set in the 1930s (as nationalism and fascism were on the rise across Europe and dictators such as Franco, Hitler and Mussolini were coming to power), and I found it a very apt framing. I also find that no matter the political climate, the theme of the corrupting effects of unlimited power is always relevant. The second act of the production, after intermission, opened on the plains of Phillipi, with a few set pieces making me think of the rubble in Gaza as Brutus and Cassius struggled to win the battle as the tide turned against them.

Later, as we drove home, Harry and I enjoyed a discussion of the play and our impressions of the performances. I find that is one of the pleasures of seeing a show at OSF: It leads one to look at the world from different perspectives and stimulates lively conversation. I’m hoping we’ll see at least one more show this season!

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor