shadows that never did offend

Once again in honour of Kendra's natal day we headed down to Bard on the Beach. For seventeen years Christopher Gaze and company have trod the boards under the tents in Vanier Park and somehow they just keep getting better. Monica, Kendra and I managed to get some of the last tickets to A Midsummer Night's Dream and once again I was impressed. I don't remember the last I laughed that hard during Shakespeare. Kudos to Kyle Rideout for a Billy Idol-inspired Puck and for truly working the striped tights, high tops and a leather vest get up. Very nicely done. I am still applauding.

One of my favourite parts of Bard is always the set design. Kevin McAllister has the impossible task of setting two well known and much loved shoes on a single stage with minimal ornament. Year after year he does an amazing job. This year the two mainstage productions, Midsummer and Measure for Measure were set in Swinging London. I don't know who decided that you could create a fairy forest and almost every prop required from a few white umbrellas but somehow it worked. A single mod lounging chair and a few feet of aluminum pipe and there it was, conjured from imagination itself. A fairy forest, a queen's bower, a lover's lament, a triumphant wedding all summond from wherever creativity lays its head to sleep.

The only part I didn't like was when Puck took center stage to begin his "If we shadows have offended" speech. Surely it couldn't be time to go home yet.