An Evening At The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival

Brian and I - I've been saying that way too much - went to the Scholar's Garden at St. John's College to catch a performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. There was an audience of about 300 with those on the lawn going about 8 or so deep. The stage was a small area of grass underneath a tree. Warmed up wine, which gave the air a pleasant smell was served at intermission. Most of the performances were decent, nothing great. The interactions with the audience provided and a few contemporary references made for some of the best of laughs. All in all it was entertaining and something to be remembered.

The Festival has become a significant cultural event in the region and can expect to attract upwards of 25,000 visitors for the productions which run during the eight weeks of the Festival. Also, because the city attracts so many tourists at this time of year, the Festival has acquired a national and international dimension, with many visitors returning to Cambridge again and again.

An evening at the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is a unique experience. Prior to the performance, members of the audience can picnic in this idyllic setting, before sitting back to enjoy an evening of dynamic and highly visual theatre. The Festival prides itself on an artistic policy which strips away unnecessary theatrical artifice and gimmickry, and the Company exists to provide access for all to these marvellous works without assuming any prior knowledge of the author or the play in question.

The productions themselves are vivid and spectacular, and are performed in full period costume with live Elizabethan music. Imperceptibly the evening passes from a glorious summer evening to dusk and then to night. The moon rises to provide additional lighting in a way that no theatre could match. Following the performance the audiences from each venue (we have four productions running simultaneously at different venues) return to the heart of Cambridge and its many bars and restaurants to end a perfect evening.