review

Although the opening night of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's outdoor season in the Elizabethan Theatre was threatened by some ominous dark clouds and scattered sprinkles of rain, luckily the potentially soggy weather didn't materialize to dampen the visual feast of pageantry and opulent costumes that were spread before the audience in a glittering array in "Henry VIII."

From the moment that the lights went up on Henry's (Elijah Alexander's) stunning entrance on a huge white steed beginning the play with a dazzling medieval masque, the stage was set for a series of scenic wonderments of rich, period costumes (designed by Susan E. Mickey) the like of which have rarely been seen throughout any of the festival's parade of productions during its long and storied artistic history.

Read the complete review here.