Friday, August 30, 2013

Punting to Shakespeare in the Park


On Thursday evening, Mark, Maggie and I attended a performance of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" presented on the River Cam by a young troupe of English performers.  The first part of this adventure required us to be punted to the site:







When we arrived, we put down our blankets, brought out our picnic fare (salads and sandwiches purchased at M&S as well as wine and shortbread cookies).

Our front row seats on the lawn.



Across the River Cam from where we sat on the grass was this stage.


Soon, the performers came out -- they were so good and pretty funny!  We got to watch the performance across the River Cam -- one shore had all of us in the audience, and the other shore had the performers, but the punts were chained across the river so that the actors could run across the river during parts of the play and interact somewhat with the audience.



 
 


By the end of the evening, I believe we heard a few lines in the play that were not in Shakespeare's original.  It was a treat watching British actors perform Shakespeare -- I think some of them may have been students because a bunch of them seemed pretty young - and everyone looked like they were having a fun time.
 


I will end this post with a little poem that Mark made up . . . . very likely inspired as he struggled to get up off the lawn at the end of the play!

Shakespeare in the park
in the dark
on the grass
and on your ass.

Yes, England has been quite inspirational for Mark . . . .

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