Love it: Shakespeare in the rough

So this evening Jennskoot and R and I went to see CanStage's latest summer Dream In The Park production: The Taming Of The Shrew.

This was my third time attending Dream In The Park, previously I'd seen A Midsummer Night's Dream (perfect to see in an outdoor venue, and also a surprise as a long-lost friend from school was in it!) and The Tempest (I think, it was a long time ago). On one of those occasions I recall slowly sliding down the hill as I'd brought a nylon blanket, bad idea.

It turned out to be a bit of an adventure actually - we approached from a different end of the park than I've done in the past, so I had no idea where we were going. I was grateful that I'd worn runners, too, as a storm last week fell a rather large oak directly across our path and we had to get into the brush to get around it. When we finally got to the amphitheatre there were no 'seats' left so we were relegated to the lawn on the side, which honestly was what I expected anyway. I had brought a cushion, but it was less than adequate. I spent the evening with my feet, legs and ass alternately falling completely asleep and cramping up.

Now, that said, I really did enjoy the performance itself - I've never been a huge fan of Shrew, I've always found the message to be quite repulsive, but the cast (Kevin MacDonald and Ryan Hollyman in particular were delightful) definitely made it entertaining, the adaptation was inventive and the way the message was dealt with was nice. A lesbian sub-plot here, a drunken horny widow there and a liberal dose of Starbuck's specialty drinks made for a happy evening. If you haven't gone yet, I highly recommend it!