Roadset - From Shakespeare

FTLComm - Highway #3 - Monday, July 16, 2001

The dramatic and dangerous looking skies of the late afternoon had all passed off to the East and Southeast as I made my way back to Tisdale after having spent the afternoon in Saskatoon. As dusk approached the rolling countryside West of Melfort was bathed in the rosy glow of the early sunset and looking very lush despite the dreadful dry conditions which only goes further to show us how tough living things can be.

Very quickly the low cumulus began to light up much as it had the evening before as the red glow of sunset flickered across the tattered clouds left behind by the threatening storms. I thought you might like to see these and realising that even though we looked at them yesterday you can not get to much of a good thing and these clouds looked like a good thing. My trip to Saskatoon had been to see Shakespeare On The Saskatchewan, we went to the afternoon matinee performance of Love's

Labour Lost performed in a large tent on the West side of the Saskatchewan beside the Mendel Art Gallery. With the hot sun raising the temperature to above 30º the conditions inside the vinyl tent were less than ideal even for a play as well written as one by William Shakespeare. It was so hot that I could smell the polyvinyl chloride flashing off into the atmosphere with in the tent

Melfort Pool Terminal

with its more than two hundred theatre goers fanning themselves with their play programmes. The players and support for the Shakespeare On The Saskatchewan Festival are almost all Saskatoon folk and when you realise that the performances both individually and as a cast were extra-ordinary. Shakespeare enjoyed providing his Elizabethan audiences with light comedies that dealt with twisted love plots and people with whom members of the court could easily identify. Love's Labour Lost is one of these fun boys try to deal with courting sort of

problem. But the show is clearly in the hands of the consummate comedic performances of this super cast. The gardener, a court dandy, a very hip and totally cool page played by Brad Grass, and three nerdy scholars transported the steamy audience to a world beyond the passing aircraft, motor boats, drumming car stereos and made us laugh. I often wonder what would have happened to mankind had it not been for us to have

Tisdale dehydration plant

this amazing wealth of plays from centuries ago, the language is not lost in antiquity but the players bring the clever scenario to life time after time and we laugh at really old jokes (five hundred year old jokes) and that is remarkable. The Saskatoon festival is well worth enjoying as they also present the Merry Wives of Windsor this summer. Most evening shows are sold out but check availability out at 652 9100. Matinee seats $13, evenings $22, twelve and under can enjoy the afternoon shows free and will have to pay $13 for evening performances.

Tisdale's hospital