A few weekends ago, my husband and I decided to combine a few auction items we’d “won” over the past few years and make a weekend of theater in nearby Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Our stay began with check-in at the Ashland Springs Hotel, a lovely landmark hotel first opened in 1925 as the Lithia Springs Hotel. (Ashland is home to mineral springs promoted at the time as the most pure and healthful in the country.) The nine-story, 100-room hotel was the tallest building between Portland and San Francisco and boasted a gracious blend of Gothic and Beaux-Arts architecture. Its fortunes rose and fell throughout the century, and in 1960 it was renamed the Mark Antony in a nod to the growing Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It closed in 1997, but a local couple purchased the grand dame in 1998, and the hotel underwent a complete refurbishment and updating, from guestrooms to ballroom to event space. We enjoyed a spacious View King corner room with a king-size bed, comfortable armchairs, a desk, bureau, armoire and free high-speed Internet access. The bathroom, though not huge, offered all the necessities (including a fan which rivaled a 747 jet engine), with vintage tile floors and fixtures.

That evening we strolled just a block up the hill to the Oregon Cabaret Theatre, enjoying its 29th season offering five shows along with dinner, brunch (with matinee performances), appetizers and drinks. The performance space is a transformed church and boasts tiered seating, stained glass windows and professional musical productions. The menu, while not extensive, offers a half-dozen starters, salads and soup; entrées to suit any diet; and some truly decadent desserts (served at intermission). Service was friendly and efficient, and the show was quite entertaining. Double Trouble, a “musical tour-de-farce,” features a cast of 10 characters, all played by two actors who, with a broad wink and shared-with-the-audience nod, madly take advantage of creative staging and quick changes to provide plenty of laughs as the story moves along. High art it was not, but very entertaining it was.

After a comfortable night and complimentary extended continental breakfast at the hotel, we ventured over to the Angus Bowmer Theatre at the OSF for more laughs. On the bill was The Cocoanuts, a Marx Brothers musical comedy. (Most of us know it in its film form, but it was first produced by the brothers on Broadway in 1925, with Irving Berlin providing the music.) The set, all 1920s Art Deco Florida in brilliant colors, greets the audience as soon as they enter the theater. True to Marx Brothers form, though, the action doesn’t stay on the stage, and periodically the zaniness pulls in audience members as the actors literally climb up into the seats to interact with them. The show was pure delight, from the staging, costumes and sets to the music, sight gags and performances. I would heartily recommend this play to anyone — and it plays here through November 2.

We’re looking forward to returning to Ashland for more performances this year at both Oregon Cabaret and OSF. If you’re in Southern Oregon, I believe you’ll find both are worth a trip!

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor