No autism last night as my oldest son Brandon and I attended the Bard in the Barracks presentation of MacBeth in Odell Park (I do not subscribe to the speculation that various historical geniuses including Shakespeare were autistic). Heather and I have watched a lot of BBC Shakespeare productions with Brandon and he bought a pair of tickets for his ever wiser and slightly grayer Dad's birthday. It was an amazing experience in the woods of Odell Park at night and MacBeth is my favorite Shakespeare. I loved it.
The production went from 7:30 to almost 11:30 pm with a large crowd turn out. We followed the cast around 14 settings in Odell Park. Some times we walked on the gravel trails. Often the entire crowd literally followed along paths through the woods. As night fell small lights were posted as the crowd trooped through the woods.
The host, Len Falkenstein, told us at the outset that it would be a 360 degrees experience and it was. The three weird witches suddenly performed beside us at times. As the audience walked to the next scene messengers ran through the woods delivering news to MacBeth and Lady MacBeth. We walked around Banquo's dead body laying on the trail after he was murdered by MacBeth's assassins. Malcolm and his soldiers made their presence known behind us as we faced the other direction watching MacBeth in the final scene. The great characters and great lines from Shakespeare's MacBeth were all well performed and the cast deserved the rousing ovation they received at the end. The event organizers deserve credit for guiding us all safely, for the most part comfortably, and always enjoyably through the woods of Odell Park at night.
Thanks to Brandon for giving his Dad a wonderful birthday gift.
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