three plays, two days, one shakespeare festival

earlier this summer i took a trip to europe. on that trip i saw two productions shakespeare plays: romeo & juliet at stratford-upon-avon and macbeth at the globe. i, of course, blogged about them, and how much i loved them, how enthralled i was with the language, and how i so enjoyed watching the books i've read come to life. the minute my dad read about all this, he was stoked and wasted no time booking us a trip to the oregon shakespeare festival in ashland. see, my dad fell in love with shakespeare when he was in college, and what father doesn't love to see their child follow in their footsteps? he used to go to the festival and see plays when he was my age, and now he got to take me. we've spent the past two days strolling around the quaint little town of ashland and taking in the wonders of the stage.

the first production we saw was of hamlet. and it was incredible. the best shakespeare production of the four that i have now seen. the dialogue was all as written, but the staging and wardrobe and whatnot were all set in the modern era. let me just say that there was rapping involved. for-rizzle. it was awesome.

the opening stage for hamlet

later that day we saw not a shakespeare play, but my all time favorite story portrayed on stage: pride and prejudice. unfortunately, elizabeth bennet, mr. darcy, and the rest of the gang didn't really strike my fancy this time. that is to say, i didn't like the actors. the girl that played elizabeth scowled the whole time and the man that was mr. darcy smiled the whole time. if you know anything about either of those character, you know that they got it all wrong. i will say, though, that seeing what a failure it was on stage (okay, that might be a bit harsh, but still) made me appreciate it as a novel even more.

the opening stage for pride and prejudice

we spent the following afternoon shopping and eating yummy sandwiches and hanging out at starbucks. i found a used book store (my idea of bliss materialized) and browsed about the shelves. eventually, i walked up to the cash register with ten books bundled in my arms, but fighting the overwhelming urge to buy them all, i honed my self control and narrowed it down to two (wuthering heights and random harvest) before checking out.
that evening we went to a preliminary session on twelfth night, the play we were seeing later that night. they talked about the plot and themes and costumes and staging and whatnot. it was actually really interesting, and a helpful refresher before seeing the outlandishly bemusing shakesperian comedy. the play itself was well done, and though i didn't enjoy it as much as hamlet i still appreciated the time and talent that went into it and the wild imagination of good old will.

if you like shakespeare, strange street musicians (there were lots of those), and used book stores this festival is definitely for you. it was definitely for me, and i'm sure i'll be back again someday.