For the second night in a row, I went out to see a play. This time it was my first Shakespeare play of the summer, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was this year’s San Francisco Shakespeare Festival Free Shakespeare in the Park.
This was a decent production, but I guess I was generally un-thrilled. This was from a combination of factors, the play itself in which the actors were good enough, but it appeared to be a somewhat short version (although it still seemed to go slow), and the audience and environment was generally annoying me. People came in late then just plopped in ahead of people and blocked entrances, got up in the middle of things and walked in and out, people answering phone calls, and there were loud kids playing a few hundred feet from the stage throughout the entire play. They also provided a “green show” ahead of time with kid actors to summarize the play for newcomers, which was totally useless and not entertaining. Maybe I’m just grumpy.
Despite that it was a pleasantly warm night for Shakespeare in the park, and even though it wasn’t the greatest it was still good to see some Shakespeare again.
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