Weekend before last, I headed downtown around 6:30pm with the foolish thought that I could get into the theater and see Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Wandered up to the theater about 40 minutes early to find they are sold out. Waited around for 30 minutes to see if anyone would bail, when nobody did, I bought a ticket for the Sunday matinée. Oh, well, gave me some time to hang around the bar and have a couple nice beers and conversation with a drunk girl.
So Sunday rolls around and I head over to the theater around 1:30. Glad I got there early because they were sold out again so it was going to be crowded, and I scored a nice aisle seat about three rows back from the stage floor. It’s a small theater and costs $18 a ticket. Cheap enough. I hoped it might be good enough to make a couple hours whiz by in Fairbanks instead of dragging by.
They took an extra 30 minutes to let all the ticket holders show up so when the house lights finally went down, I was overheated from all the body heat in the place and getting a little antsy. But, this was Shakespeare, worth the wait, and an excellent ensemble at that. In this small town, (36,000 in the winter), it’s a surprise that they have this much talent. Puck was well done (Oh, what fools these mortals be!), Bottom did an excellent job as the half man half donkey love interest of Fairie queen Titania who falls in love with him thanks to a trick of Oberon’s…in this case played by an actor with the costume and hair of a ’70s Big Hair band.
Then there were what seemed like hundreds of fairies prancing around all the time causing trouble for the main characters.
All in all, the 2 & 1/2 hours whizzed by. Well worth it.
Here are some pictures of the cast at the end of the play. They won’t mean much to you, but they will help me remember it years from now:
Here in Saskatoon we have Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. Every year they put on two major plays through the summer as well as in between shows of monologues and such. It’s quite famous and they’ve done some spectacular things. One of the plays, I think it was ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’, was placed in a biker gang or some such thing. Considering the play is done in a billy tent (a huge public striped tent) outside, so on hot summer nights it got downright sweaty on stage. Apparently it helped the atmosphere of the show.
I love Shakespeare’s comedies. The best I’ve seen was a ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ done with Vivien Leigh, Mickey Rooney and a host of other mostly dead now fabulous actors.
Yeah, Naomi, I too am a big fan of Shakespeare. EVERY PLAY has a line or two or three that you recognize. A line that is so true and precise and profound that you just say to yourself…’Why didn’t I think of that?’. Followed by ‘Oh, that’s where that expression came from…’ Genius squared. – Jim
Midsummer is my favorite Shakespeare play. Have you been to Ashland ,Oregon?
Midsummer is not my favorite but it’s fun. Yes, I have been to Ashland. Had a friend who’s son was going to college down there so we scored free tickets for several of the plays. Brilliant. The best I’d ever seen.
Used to take students there for about 10 years. We’d see five to six plays each trip.
Can’t top that. Last year I did consider settling there for a few years in my RV, I still have the time. Maybe someday. One of the problems living there was that there were too few RV campground choices.
Are things warming up there???
Yes, it’s up to 60°F every day now and no longer freezing at night…
Future plans????
I’m planning on spending another summer here, then we’ll see.