Saturday, 3 May 2014

Shakespeare in the Park



The boys kept telling me that a thunderstorm was going to ruin our Saturday night plans and that I would have to spent the evening inside, finding something to entertain myself with, but thankfully the daily thunderstorms passed us by this evening, and our tickets to see the Merchant of Venice in Fort Canning Park did not go to waste.


Having arrived an hour before show time to make the most of a fabulous picnic opportunity, Nick and I met up with Kev and Jules to work our way through a very English selection of picnic foods before settling in to watch an incredibly multi-cultural cast acting out Shakespeare in a variety of accents whilst we enjoyed a glass of two of wine out of our (stolen from the office) paper cups.
            I generally get a bit over excited about the prospect of anything at the theatre, so I was never going to be very negative about the show, but it really was surprisingly good. There were Singaporeans, Indians, English and American actors telling the story set in modern times, with a slightly aggressive lighting rig throwing a massive amount of light out into the otherwise pitch black park.\


The first five minutes scared me – it was all a little bit too close to the classic Sixth Form drama productions that I had to sit through whenever friends had drama performance that they requested support for. Thankfully, after around ten minutes of weird walking around and interpretive dance they got back on track and more than made up for the dodgy start.
            The only negative about the evening is that the heat in Singapore is currently skyrocketing, and whilst it was dark and there was a slightly cooling breeze whilst we were setting up and picnicking, before too long the breeze dropped and the heat increased, which became a bit of a struggle towards the end, especially when sitting on a fleece blanket. Still, it was a lovely way to spend the evening, and I can’t wait until the Ballet at the Park comes to town later in the summer.





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