There was more to our visit to the Utah Shakespearean Festival than The 39 Steps, Much Ado about Nothing, and Pride and Prejudice. Not only were there more plays but there were such diversions as The Greenshow. The Greenshow is a series of complimentary performances presented six nights a week, prior to the evening theatrical performances. There are also several comely “tarts” selling Elizabethan fare.

The Utah Shakespearean Festival website has this to say:

The perfect mood enhancer for the Festival’s productions can be found each summer evening on the beautiful green and courtyard surrounding the Adams Shakespearean Theatre. The Greenshow features the spirited song, dance, and costumes of Shakespeare’s day, and it’s free! Add storytelling, juggling, and Elizabethan sweets, and you’ll have a fun-filled frolic to prepare you for the main stage performance that follows.

This time I only saw a few minutes of The Greenshow — just long enough to snap a couple of photographs. In prior visits I have watched a whole show for they are very entertaining.

Next: The Randall L. Jones Theatre Backstage Tour

For our 30th anniversary Jill and I spent two days in Cedar City this week. Monday afternoon at the Utah Shakespearean Festival we watched The 39 Steps. In the evening it was time for Much Ado about Nothing, a comedy by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero.

The play is directed by B. J. Jones. The Utah Shakespearean Festival website has this to say:

Meet Beatrice and Benedick. To them love is a game of wits. Then meet Hero and Claudio. To them love is, well . . . just love. This vibrant and comic celebration of life and romance will introduce you to these opposite lovers, and to a host of villains, clowns, and eccentric characters. And you will cheer when these lively couples finally learn realities about life, love—and themselves.

The play is shown in the Adams Shakespearean Theatre, dedicated in 1977. It is patterned after drawings and research of sixteenth century Tudor stages. Experts say it is one of a few theatres that probably comes close to the design of the Globe Theatre in which Shakespeare’s plays were originally produced.

I found watching Much Ado about Nothing in an open air theater just adds to the experience. The play was very entertaining and funny. Sometimes, watching Shakespeare drags for me, being the uncouth man that I am, but I enjoyed this play and the time was gone all too soon.

Next: Pride and Prejudice

For our 30th anniversary Jill and I spent two days in Cedar City. Our first stop was the play The 39 Steps showing at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. The original was the 1935 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the adventure novel The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan. The film stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll.

The play was adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel and is directed by Eli Simon. The Utah Shakespearean Festival website has this to say:

What do you get when you blend Alfred Hitchcock with Monty Python? A hilarious mystery spoof that will keep you guessing! Murder, betrayal, and espionage intertwine with sly and hysterical nods to many of Hitchcock’s films, resulting in one of the funniest plays to ever hit Broadway. See if you can figure out whodunit as this cast of four transforms into over 150 farcical characters!

It took me awhile to catch on but there are only four actors in the play. This is where a lot of the humor is involved as characters, at times, are switched at a frenetic pace. There were an amazing amount of costume changes as there are over 150 characters.

It was clever (and funny) how the train and car rides were simulated. At one point, one of the actors was so funny that the other actors had a great deal of trouble keeping a straight face. This set off the audience laughing anew.

This mystery spoof is intertwined with sly and hysterical nods to many of Hitchcock’s films. Most of these had gone over my head before I finally caught on.

Really, my theater ticket was wasted on me.

Next: Much Ado about Nothing