Last night we tried a different kind of artistic experience …. the theatre. We went to see Romeo and Juliet at Harlow Carr Gardens, near Harrogate. Several things were memorable about the occasion. Not the least remarkable of these was the fact that it was an open air performance. Readers living in the UK will have some idea of what that meant. Yes: it rained for most of the time, which imposed certain constraints on how we viewed the play, if not on how it was performed.
The picnic I had prepared was great …. even though we had to eat it sitting in the car. Olives, three kinds of fancy sandwiches (smoked salmon, cream cheese and asparagus; sopocka ham, sun-dried tomatoes and basil; chorizo sausage and spring onions), salad of small plum tomatoes, raspberry and peach fool, and a bottle of pink Italian bubbly.
We had gone prepared for the weather, and wore our thermal underwear, fleeces and waterproofs, gloves hats and scarves. It is August, but it’s England, remember. We took our own portable chairs, rugs and a large golf umbrella, that was remarkably successful in keeping us dry. Fortunately there was no wind. The biggest drawback from our point of view was the fact that the beating of the rain on the umbrella sometimes made it hard to hear the actors, but we knew the play anyway. Large mugs of hot coffee were available in the interval.
Despite these difficulties, the play was interesting. The company was called The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and is an all-male group, performing the play as it would have been done in Shakespeare’s day. They had terrific energy, and one would never have guessed from their behaviour that they were having to perform in a pretty constant downpour. Perhaps they played up the Bard’s naughty double entendres, but we needed something to laugh at. I thought it was very creditable.
The sun shone today, and it has been possible to get back to my more familiar kind of art.