Shakespeare on a Midsummer's Night

Arr, me lads and lassies, the birthday plunder this year has been exceedingly good, yes it has.

Sorry.  Still sort of in the spirit of "Pirates of the Caribbean" from Saturday. 

But seriously, the gifts this year have been pretty sweet.  For starters, for the first time in several years, I have a girlfriend.  A Significant Other.  I've written about it before, of course, but her presence in my life pops everything into sharp relief.
 
Then, my dad sent me a digital camera.  I promise: I will take pictures and post them here for your enjoyment.  I have two in mind, for starters…first is the view from my office window, and second, a shot of me and my shiny pate, taken in a mirror, of course.  Other pictures will follow, I'm sure.

My daughters gave me a DVD and a gift certificate for a music and video store, so I will go shopping there tomorrow, when the fact that it is my birthday will give me an additional discount. 

And Sihaya gave me tickets to this season's San Diego Shakespeare Festival, along with a book containing all of that Shakespeare guy's plays.

Last night was the first of the three: A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I must say that this Shakespeare dude knows his way around a story.  I predict good things for him, and I suspect that his plays will (eventually) be very popular.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is pure fun.  There are young lovers who quarrel, and doubt, and hate, and then love again.  A husband and wife plot against each other, not for anything deadly, but in the way that married couples do when their arguments overshadow their appreciation of each other.  Playful spirits, woodland fairies make mischief, and magic is everywhere, as pervasive and cool as mist in the forest.

Watching the Mechanicals rehearse their play-within-a-play, it's easy to imagine that Will might have been poking fun at some of his lesser contemporaries, or even at those with whom he worked most closely. 

As a fan of Hamlet, Othello, and Much Ado About Nothing, I have to say that the bawdy side of Will Shakespeare is a welcome discovery. 

When Helena says,
"…So we grow together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition;
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem…"

…'twas the bark of laughter mine which heard you,
O'er reaching the tittering gallery.