Wednesday - The Royal Family
As I’ve said, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is an industry, running from February to November each year, producing more than 10 plays in 3 theaters. Southern Oregon is not an urban hotbed of arts-crazed intellectuals with deep pockets, so the Festival has to draw the bulk of both its viewers and dollars from farflung climes. The plays, then, need to have a breadth of appeal, and that’s what you see built around the core Shakespeare offerings - some new commissions, some older “serious” plays and some butts-in-seats romps.
The Royal Family seems to fall in the “crowd-pleaser” category. It was written by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, and although they always denied that it was about the Barrymores, no one believed them for a second. While this may have created some frisson for those who saw it in the late 20s, it’s not as resonant to current generations, for whom the family is represented by Drew.
However, we can still appreciate the situation as a drama independent of its temporal popular culture. Three generations of successful stage women are each dealing with the advantages and disadvantages of their success. The matriarch, who forged the family’s name by touring indefatigably with her now-deceased husband, has clearly set the bar high for her daughter and, through her, for her granddaughter. She (the matriarch) sits in her unassailable position as stage legend. Her daughter is the current darling of the theatre, and revels in the feeling of well-being and success, but laments the “road not taken”, that of a happily married, normal person, and seriously toys with leaving the stage to marry an old beau who is a fabulously successful businessman, but has not much appreciation for the theatre, hasn’t even seen her perform.
The granddaughter is an emerging star about to eclipse her mother (and it’s apparent that Mom won’t go down without a fight), but also is struggling with the demands of her career vs. the possibility of marrying a stockbroker she loves. The matriarch, however, is adamant about preserving the family legacy in the theater, and dismisses the marital hopes of the other women as aberrations. “Marriage isn’t a CAREER,” she says, “it’s and INCIDENT!”.
Through all the broad comedy and absurd family situations, what stays with me from this play is the idea of how successful dynasties start and continue - whether it’s a successful family like the Barrymores, the Mannings (Archie, Peyton, Eli - quarterbacks), or, gird your stomachs, the Bushes. Why does success breed success in certain of these instances? It seems to be a curious blend of genetics, grit and determination of the progenitors, and acculturation of the succeeding generations.
