Shakespeare and children, take 2

This past weekend was so full that I'm going to take a couple of days to write about it. I showed you Sunday's doings all ready, so now we'll head back to Saturday night. 

As you know, we're reading through A Suitable Boy this year at teatime. (We're on page 985 out of 1349 for those keeping track. Maybe we'll finish it by fall.) A small subplot is that a couple of the characters are in their university's production of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. I did a brief synopsis for everyone at that point in the story, but also realized that this half of my children aren't nearly as familiar with Shakespeare's plays as the older half were. I had a brief moment of being sad about this. 

You need this back story to understand why, when I saw an advertisement from a local theater company that they were opening a production of Twelfth Night last weekend that I immediately went and bought eight adult prices tickets. (Sadly, no student rate, which is probably my only quibble you'll hear about the whole experience.) It was not a small amount of money and between vet and car repairs, money has been more than usually tight. But this felt important. 

J. and I had no idea what to expect. We had seen another production by this theater company and had enjoyed it, so we're optimistic. But we've also seen more than the typical amount of productions of various Shakespeare plays, and it is not always a simple thing to speak Shakespeare's English so that the audience can follow the play. When it is done well, the story is easy to follow, when it is not... let's just say it can be a long evening. 

I am happy to report that this was an excellent production. It was well acted, well spoken, and exceedingly funny. Everyone (that would be H., R., K., Y., L., and G.) enjoyed it. It was well worth the ticket price, which for just a couple of tickets is a bargain. If you're in the Fox Valley area, you have two more weekends to catch it. I'll give details at the end of the post. 

If you are new to Shakespeare (or you're children are) this would be a good first introduction. But I would do some preparation first. Last week I grabbed a children's retelling of Shakespeare's plays and read the Twelfth Night synopsis. The comedies in particular are fairly convoluted stories and it helps immensely to have some idea of the plot ahead of time. I would also give the warning that the language will sound odd at first and maybe not entirely understandable. Don't panic! Your ear does attune and by the end you won't be as aware of it. You also don't have to catch every word or every line to understand and enjoy it. 

What I would not do is try to read the play ahead of time. These are plays that were meant to be performed and viewed in performance. The plays in written firm will seem dull and confusing and will convince you that you either don't like Shakespeare or aren't smart enough to understand it. Do yourself a favor and just watch a play. It is a totally different experience. You will be glad you did. 

The details if you are in the area: 

Twelfth Night 

The Albright Theater (downtown Batavia)

You have the next two weekends to catch it. 

And if you need to read more posts about our family and Shakespeare, then head to Shakespeare and Children 

And finally a funny story to wrap up. On Saturday at dinner before we left, I was asking people to tell me the plot of play one last time, which they did. But then L. says something along the lines of, "But isn't the really interesting question who actually wrote the plays? I'm going with my boy Bacon." Which made me laugh. A lot. And no, we never covered Shakespearean authorship when we did the Renaissance last year.