Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

You know, the one where Lysander loves Hermia and vice versa, and Helena loves Demetrius but not vice versa, and Theseus has a fiancée who’s reluctant, and they end up prancing around with donkey-headed ponces in the forest?

I went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream last night, a performance put on by SF Shakes. They’ve been around for twenty-five years and each summer they do a series of free performances in various towns. Their mission is to make Shakespeare accessible to all and among other things they run summer Shakespeare camps for kids and do performances in schools.

It was a spontaneous decision. Amber and her sister Kate were coming down for the play and to pick up a bookshelf I’d promised them. Once this was installed in their minivan, there was no room for me, so I donned my kit and we went in convoy. It was quite thrilling, actually. :)

The venue was Memorial Park, where an “amphitheatre” (ascending series of grassy platforms) rises above a stage hung over the lake. Many water fowl added to the performance, including the flock of Canada geese that flew over a suddenly very watchful and hat-donning audience! As the play began, the sun was setting, its glare setting the water on fire. Everyone stopped squinting.

Immediately we knew it was going to be fun. Helena was pure emo in her stompy Goth boots amd black tutu dress with mesh top; her beloved ex, Demetrius, was a frat boy and dressed accordingly. Conversely, Lysander wore a Public Enemy t-shirt; Hermia was the frat girl with a little shiny gold dress and little shiny gold shoes. I loved that they did not match the styles, but made opposites attract–a reflection of the play as a whole.

Meanwhile, Theseus and his future, reluctant wife (spoils of war) Hippolyta wear khaki-colored trench coats. It was all delightfully Eighties.

And oh, the fairies! Titiana (doubling up for HIppolyta) wore a silver body suit and thigh high boots made from the kind of prismatic silver material that is often found on gift boxes. The reflected light made her legs look like rainbows. (It’s frequently seen on gift boxes.) Her platinum blonde hair matched that of Oberon (Theseus), the fairy king. Puck was a punk rocker (from Bournemouth, I later discovered) wearing, variously, a bright red tutu and a pair of striped red and white tights. The outfits were awesome and I wasn’t the only one looking at Titiana and thinking, I want to be her.. ;)

Rather disappointingly, nobody was allowed to take pictures of these glorious costumes. If anybody did, their actors’ union was liable to fine them. We were, however, invited to photograph the person telling us this.

Shakespeare is difficult, unless you’ve studied the play. I’d get on fine with Macbeth, as somehow my high school curriculum contrived to teach it three years in a row, but this one I couldn’t always or even often follow the words. But the acting her was such that, so long as you’d read the program beforehand, you could follow the meaning. The body language was perfect, and there was so much happening in both foreground and background that there was never a moment to stop and rest. The actors moved around the stage like dancers, lithe and graceful, with every transition magical and as smooth as glass.

Then there was the play within the play, the foil to the action–the terrible troupe of amateur actors planning their melodrama for the overlord. Shakespeare must have had so much fun writing this script–sending up his own craft so thoroughly!

The score was wonderful. There were tunes from the Twenties and raps from the Noughties. Everything fit perfectly and I wish that they’d put the playlist in their program.

I had no idea that Shakespeare could be so uproariously funny, and the crowd was as delighted as I. Streaming back to my bike for a wonderful, liberating ride home, I exchanged grins and enthusiasm with another rider who was sharing my parking space. It just iced the cake when, looking at my Beastie, he told me he had “bike envy.”

My bike, and my friends, bring me to some unexpected, wonderful places.

Just a few random posts

• Street vines (2)
• 24 June (0)
• Some pictures (0)
• Treasure-hunting (0)
• Bye-bye interweb (0)

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