semperfiona | Midsummer Night's Dream

(Now that I have the functioning keyboard, I can type this in.)

The play was very enjoyable. As always, and even more so because it was nearly the last night and there were also several other events going on at the park, parking was at a premium. We ended up parking at the zoo and paying seven dollars. But it was a good spot and not overly far away.

Before the show, we watched (and snarked at, in Jen's case) a group of belly dancers and a fire dancer. I thought they were pretty good, but I don't know anything about belly dance, and Jen does. She promises to teach me.

On to the play itself. It was difficult to see, from where we sat, but I managed to see most of it except the bits where people lie down on the stage. It was done in modern dress, which I don't usually like, but this time, maybe because it's a fairy tale, without any real time element, making it modern-day worked. It also reinforced the contrast between the fairies and the mortals, since period costumes look as foreign to us as fairy garb, these days. The rude mechanicals stole the show, as of course they are supposed to. They entered in an actual pick-up truck. At first, I thought someone had disrupted the show! Bottom's enactment of the death of Pyramus was the most over-the-top absurdity I think I've ever seen. He took a good five minutes about it, killing himself with not only the sword, but a power drill and the stuffed dog of Moon. I just kept staring in amazement as it went on and on.

"Ill met by moonlight" -- I hadn't realized, or remembered, that that line came from the play. I was also struck by the description of Oberon as "King of Shadows", and began to wonder if that is a(nother) reason Zelazny chose the name for the king of Amber.

It was a chilly evening. Much snuggling under a blanket was had. It makes me so happy just to hold and touch her even in ways that will not get us arrested in a public park. Holding hands walking through the park. We don't do that much, but I like it.