Theatricum Botanicum

The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum is a haunting environment for "The Crucible," Arthur Miller's examination of the Salem witch trials. The location of the alfresco theater, in a woodsy glen in rural Topanga Canyon, effectively suggests a community on the verge of wilderness, as Salem was in 1692.

Was Medea more sinned against than sinning? The controversy over the jilted sorceress and her unique approach to family values has raged since Euripides' tragedy hit the ancient floorboards in 431 BC. At the outdoor Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum's latter-day amphitheater, director Heidi Helen Davis' powerful staging proves far too smart to limit "Medea's" timeless complexity by taking an overt stand on whether its title character is the victim of a patriarchal system.

The alfresco Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga is the most richly atmospheric home that the first act of Chekhov's "The Seagull"--set outdoors on a Russian estate in midsummer--will ever find in Southern California. The synthesis of setting, season, script and Heidi Helen Davis' staging makes this an especially memorable production. True, later in the play the site-specific quality isn't quite as ideal as in the first act, in which even the time of day is a perfect match.

Poor old Beverly Hills real estate agent Jeffrey Hyland, who, along with his shuddering, sniffing and reminiscing Westside associates, cannot separate the twin concepts of "hot tubs" and "canyon living" ("Where'd All Those Darn Hot Tubs Go?" by Laura Accinelli, Aug. 4). His further singling out of Topanga Canyon as a prime example of an outmoded lifestyle only shows he has no idea of what Topanga is all about in the '90s. Why doesn't Hyland saddle up his Rover and come up for an eye-opening tour of our community?

A 1970s theme--replete with period music and costumes--brings a contemporary slant to the timeless comic social upheavals of "The Taming of the Shrew" at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Though the conceit is not without its compromises, Ellen Geer's energetic outdoor staging ignites the all-important adversarial fireworks between Shakespeare's romantic antagonists.

Mortal and magical foolishness abound in Shakespeare's comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and Theatricum Botanicum, the outdoor venue in rustic Topanga Canyon that specializes in classic theater, hopes that family audiences will come see for themselves how accessible the Bard can be. "We do it every year for schools," said the company's artistic director Ellen Geer, who is directing the show. "And the production is so lovely we wanted to extend it to families."

Is Shakespeare's always-controversial "The Merchant of Venice" an anti-Semitic play, a play about anti-Semitism, or a play that features characters who happen to be anti-Semites, but is really about something else entirely? Probably a little of all of those things.