Tonight I drove over to Los Encinos Park to watch Shakespeare By The Sea perform "The Merry Wives Of Windsor". Early August always means that it's time for SBTS. This is my fifth consecutive year of attending their shows at Los Encinos, which besides being a park is also the grounds of the Rancho Los Encinos adobe, built in 1849. It's a great setting for an outdoor play, especially Shakespeare and especially by SBTS. I love this troupe. There are a few actors, maybe three, that have been with them every year that I've seen them. This time there were also many newcomers who were making their debut with the group. But the acting is always excellent by all players, and what's more, they put so much spirit into each play.
I've seen "Hamlet", "The Tempest", "As You Like It", "The Taming Of The Shrew", "Macbeth", and now "The Merry Wives Of Windsor" (one year I saw two different plays, which accounts for six plays in five years).
"Merry Wives" features the character of Falstaff, whom Shakespeare used in several plays. Falstaff is a glutton and a buffoon. The latter quality is on display in this role, though his ample girth is evidence of the former. Falstaff is enamored of himself and certain that the ladies are too. He lusts after two married women and tells a local Squire that he will have each one. Falstaff writes them identical letters of love, professing devotion and hinting that their husbands are lacking in that regard. What he doesn't know is that the women are aware of each other's letters. They know he has set them up for meaningless dual seductions, and together they form a plot to turn the tables on him in a big way.
Meanwhile, there is a subplot about another eligible woman, Mistress Page's young daughter. Mistress Page is one of Falstaff's marks. Young Miss Page has three suitors herself, and this competition sets up opportunities for confusion and farce. The husbands of the two targeted Mistresses are also involved, just a bit after the fact. Master Page dismisses the threat, he trusts his wife, but Master Ford, the other proposed cuckold, is overcome with jealousy, even toward the person of the aging and bulbous Falstaff.
You know how I talk about certain movie scripts that I say have a great set up, or that have tons of story? Well, here we are talking about William Shakespeare, so what I have written above is but a mere scratch on the surface. With Shakespeare, the words tell the story, and there are so many words, precise words, slang words, words from many dialects. You've gotta really pay attention and even then, unless you are a long time Shakespearean, some of the dialogue will still get past you. I am getting better at it after five years, and I think I get about 85% of it now. When I started it was about 25%.
But even the first time, when I had difficulty with the dialogue, I still got the gist of the story, and that is the other thing about these plays : the actors bring the words and characters to life.
And in life, if you are watching characters, i.e real people, fictional or actual, you can understand them through their actions and their humanity, their gestures and voices, even if you don't hear or understand every single word they say.
At this stage of my life I want things that elevate my brain, but not in some stodgy standoffish way. It's got to be fun and interesting, and inclusive. The thought process should celebrate people, celebrate the human experience.
There is something about Shakespeare - and I am far from the first person to say it, more like the five millionth - but there is something about his words that is transforming, especially when those words are acted out on a stage by spirited thespians. In the way that particle physicists have tried to get to the bottom of All Things Material, so did William Shakespeare try to get to the bottom of All Things Human. His device was the words of the English language, which I have long thought just might hold a key - if used in just the right way, like a code, or poetry, or words of logic - that might lead to an ultimate advancement of the human race.
Language as politic in the highest form.
Well anyway, the play was awesome, it was a blast and maybe the funniest Shakespeare play I've seen so far. The 2018 SBTS tour is almost over, but they will be back next year. If they come your way, don't miss 'em. Once you see them, you'll never miss them again. :)
See you in church in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment