Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Cultural Refinement

Last night for Family Home Evening, we went to see a Shakespeare play. It was performed in the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park, downtown San Diego. I chose the play because it was a student production which means affordable. This is important when you are bringing along reluctant patrons of the arts. I hate to spend big bucks when the only return on investment is moans and groans.
In spite of my best efforts,
the youngsters are not big on activities that don't involve wearing damp, smelly shoes worn by hundreds of other people and hanging out with "quirky" characters in a bowling alley or large guns and loud ammunition (hopefully not during the same activity!)
In spite of their best efforts, I haven't given up yet.

So, with the lure of In N Out Burger for dinner, we set out for an evening of high-class entertainment. The production was one of his lesser-known plays. I looked up the summary so I could prepare the family--hoping it had enough entertainment value to keep them awake.

Oh my, Shakespeare--there's a reason you are timeless.

The play was "Pericles"-- I like to refer to it as the
"Jerry Springer of Shakespeare plays".
Here's a brief synopsis just to give you an idea of what I mean:

Incest, death threats, shipwrecks, jousting for wife, wife dies in childbirth, baby grows up--gets death threats, kidnapped by pirates, sold to a brothel, keeps her virtue by talking potential customers into becoming virtuous, brothel owners not happy, wife washes ashore and is revived, becomes a nun, husband finds wife, father finds daughter, they all live happily ever after.
Surprise! They don't all die at the end!

The production was well done and the student actors were quite talented. They threw in a few touches that were very funny ("Nacho Libre" type wrestling with masks, for one).

The quote of the evening comes from Sam:
"The King offers his daughter's hand in marriage to the winner of the tournament."
Sam: "Ewwww, just her hand?"


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