A dreamy season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Dreams are central to four outstanding productions of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) 2026 season, out of the seven I attended. For Shakespeare’s joyful comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, no explanation is needed. The epigraph chosen by Lorraine Hansberry for her stunning drama A Raisin in the Sun is Langston Hughes’ poem “What happens to a dream deferred?” The dreams and fantasies of a man dying of cancer — and trying to make an impact on climate change in the short time remaining to him — bring life