Tonight I saw one of the few Shakespeare plays I’ve never seen before, Troilus and Cressida. I’m not sure why it’s infrequently performed, and I didn’t know what to expect from it, but it was quite good. It’s really a story of the Iliad and the Trojan war, and the plot involving Troilus and Cressida is only one piece of a larger story. As seems to be the case with all the plays at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival the acting and production were very good. The play itself ends a bit unusual as it seems to leave a lot unresolved. Hector is killed, but we don’t find out what happens between Troilus, Cressida, and the guy Troilus is going to avenge himself on. But I’m glad I finally saw it.
I was a little confused at first as I couldn’t remember as the famous names were rattled off which side each of them was on, Trojan or Greek. As I thought about that, I realized where I was sitting in the Mary Rippon Theatre, it was right in the middle of the CU building where I had studied the classic stories four decades earlier. Interestingly back them I don’t think I was even aware of the theater being totally absorbed in my technical studies. Tomorrow night I’ll see one more Shakespeare play I’ve never seen before, getting me very close to having seen the entire canon.
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