Shakespeare on the Parke (or, "It's Like Books on Tape")

Yesterday, I attempted to swallow a spoonful of culture by joining Brian and Kelly and Shakespeare on the Parke (I added the final "e" for symmetry).

I brought a change of clothes to work, my beach mats and a low-rise chair, and was looking forward to rehashing a live performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which I read for the first (well...only) time in 7th grade.

On the walk over there, I bumped into Kristen and her sister Meghan. Kristen was the coach / organizer of our kickball team for the past few years, and I hadn't seen her in a while, so that was a nice surprise. I mentioned that I was meeting Brian & Kelly, and they joined us for the night.

There was quite a crowd of people. Brian and Kelly were there early, but somehow picked a spot behind people in too-high chairs sponsored by Heineken. So, this was my view for the start of the performance.

Just before it began, for some odd reason I asked if this was a musical. In retrospect, one of my usual dumb comments. The immediate guffaw from the 20-something woman behind me indicated that it was not. While there was weird techno-ish music throughout, it was most certainly not a musical. That would have made it much more enjoyable in my opinion.

About 6 minutes into it - I looked at my watch - I realized that I'm just not cut out for Shakespeare. Perhaps its comedic elements were funny in 16th Century England and to the legions of New York Times-reading Cantabrigians who made the trek across the Charles. I'm a self-admitted USA Today reader having settled into Southie, and looking forward to seeing The Simpsons Movie and Superbad.

Basically, I viewed this as a chance to spend time with my friends, and actors happened to be performing in the background. Kelly mentioned that it was like "books on tape," because our impeded view forced us to rely more on our auditory senses.

About 25 minutes into the performance, I realized that lying down and staring at the stars while hearing the play in the background was a relaxing way to gather my thoughts and spend my time. We left at halftime around 9pm and went drinking.