This year’s Shakespeare in the Park production is Much Ado About Nothing. Set in the Old West.
I wanted to see the show on Saturday, so I packed up some picknicky items and rode the three miles to Forest Park on my bike. Plus another three quarters of a mile through the park to the stage that is between the Art Museum and the Zoo. I parked at the zoo.
It was a crisp, calm, cool evening. I brought a book and read because it was early. There were lots of people and I could only find a place at the extreme side of the stage. Of course, I didn’t have a blanket or a chair, so I sat on the bare ground. When I was thirsty, I got a drink from the fire hydrant. From six until eight, the sky was clear, the people were happy, and we all anxiously awaited the start of the show.
But then someone said "It’s getting prematurely dark." And so it was, because the clouds had crept across the sky and were looming. Shortly before the play, the people were getting restless and worried. Rightly so. I felt a drop. I put my book in my bag. Another drop. I zipped the bag shut. Then a swimming pool was dumped on my head. I never saw the play that night. I don’t even know if they managed to put it on. I was three and a half miles away from home without a roof or an umbrella or a newspaper. I may as well have stopped off along the way and jumped into any of the dozens (and dozens) of fountains in St. Louis, for I wouldn’t have gotten any wetter. That was fun.
Undeterred, though, I resolved to go again tonight - Monday, Memorial Day. I was worried that this night would be more packed with people. And I was gunshy about biking in again. So I cooked up some brats and a salad and some cold beverages and drove down to the park once again. Though I was late to the party (the event is really a festival with performers and events going on for hours before the play), I found front row grass to put my blanket on, thanks to some friends that had fortuitously arrived earlier to save me a place. Good food, good company, clear skies and a clear view. A fun night was had, finally.
And dry.
Much Ado is as relatively pointless as Shakespeare gets. A comedy, it revolves around the fortunes of four young people - two cads whose attraction to each other is tempered by their relentless bouts of witty reparte and two love-at-first-sight soon-to-be-wed lovebirds. The evil guy conspires to ruin the wedding and the townsfolk conspire to make the cads fall in love. Nobody dies. The young people all get married. The evil guy runs away.
That was fun. Lots of fun.
