In the spirit of maxing-out on theater this summer, I took in a Saturday afternoon matinee performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor at Santa Cruz Shakespeare. It was beautiful in the grove in the afternoon with all the green trees around the glen and behind the stage, and it was fun to see this production so soon after I saw the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s amazing production of the same play. This shows why I enjoy Shakespeare so much (at least the way it’s produced now), because although it was the same play, it was very different that at Boulder; not quite as hilarious, but still quite fun, and very well done. Falstaff was played very well, which of course is key to the success of this play. Much of the cast was the same as in the previous play I saw down there, as they do their plays in repertory, and the leads were all very good. Due to purchasing my ticket fairly late, with a fairly full house, I ended up sitting in the second row of chairs, which was a great location.
It was fun to go down and experience Santa Cruz Shakespeare one more time this summer. There was more stress than I planned. I thought I’d given myself an extra hour to spare to get down there, but due to terrible traffic congestion south of San Jose, I literally just got in my seat at the scheduled starting time. Not something I like at all, but it all worked out just fine. This marks my 11th play this summer (8th Shakespeare), and I have 6 more to go. Funny that I didn’t plan my summer to be this way.