Fri 7/28-Sun 8/13
It’s that time of the year when those who find Shakespeare most enjoyable in a casual outdoor seating can enjoy a feast of options.
The two busiest outdoor Shakespeare companies in northeast Ohio have very different offerings right now. This weekend, the Ohio Shakespeare festival, which performs in the summer outdoors at Akron’s Stan Hywet Hall & Garden’s lagoon, opens A Winter’s Tale, one of Shakespeare’s less-performed plays that doesn’t fall easily into the comedy/tragedy categorization. But after three acts of challenges and dilemmas that seem as if they could end in tragedy, the play has a happy ending.
The play runs Thursday-Sundays @ 8pm through Sun 8/13. Tickets are $15-$33.
Meanwhile, up in Cleveland, the peripatetic Cleveland Shakespeare Festival is presenting one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays, the tragedy Macbeth. Even those who have never read or seen it know its tale of a noble Scottish general undone by his ambition, driven in part by the urging of his wife (Who hasn’t heard of Yoko Ono referred to as “Lady Macbeth”?) The play includes murders, betrayal and of course, three witches around a cauldron: “Double double toil and trouble/fire burn and cauldron bubble …”
CSF performs at a variety of outdoor locations Friday through Sunday through Sun 8/6 starting at 7pm (Somehow we think the witches will be less scary in a park in the daylight). They perform at Notre Dame College Fri 7/28, Lakewood Park Sat 7/29 and the City of Mentor Amphitheater Sun 7/30. Next week they’ll be in Bay Village’s Cahoon Park Fri 8/4, Sims Park in Euclid Sat 8/5 and Lincoln Park in Tremont Sun 8/6. All CSF performances are free.
Akron, OH 44313
South Euclid, OH 44121
Lakewood, OH 44107
Mentor, OH 44060