"(and the fact that you have to wait in line for about 6 hours starting at dawn to get your free tickets) "

That is one of the things that I love about Buffalo. Being in cities like NYC and Boston... it's competitive living. You're always competing against somebody to do something you enjoy (tough to get tix to sporting events, concerts, theater, restaurant reservations, finding cheap housing, catching the right train to get to work on time). We have it easier here when it comes to doing the things we want to do and living the way we want to live.

The accessibility and affordability of leisure activities in Buffalo more than makes up for any perceived drop in quality (often times there is no difference).

The play is the thing. This one had a lot of laughs and wisdom. My wife and I attended last nights performance of the play and loved the expert interpretations of the Bard's lines that made them understandable to an audience in these times. Norman Sham did a terrific job playing Falstaff. Susan Drozd and Beth Donahue put merriment into the lines of the Merry Wives of Windsor. The cast and crew and the audience were transported back by lines into a time and place where entertainment took place at the Globe Theatre in London. A good play well done can match and overcome the competition from television and film. In fact this is what we became involved in and we laughed and were totally entertained. Last night was a perfect evening without rain and the park was jammed for local actors and student actors to carry on a long, summer time tradition in Buffalo. There is nothing better than a comedy by Rasta writer Shaking Spear.

What a night to go barefoot in the park and drink wine and eat summer cherries and see a jealous husband come unglued and a baffoon get his comeupence, crooks playing with daggers, ladies playing tircks on fools, foppish characters having the verbal wool pulled over their eyes in was terrific fun for us. The price was affordable and the entertainment expert at times. My sense of understanding of theatre leads me to write that all the actors worked together and worked with great attention and energy to making this play come alive. I absolutely loved the deliver and pronouncement of some of the bar scene lines by Bardolph. Sham did some very nice interpretations of the lines. For instance he delived a line about things being dicey and than made the sound of dice being rolled. I understood the line because of how he interpreted the lines in the play and conveyed them to me in the audience.

The play itself captures the sense and sensibilities of old England and generalizations that cultures make towards other cultures to mock them or create a sense of nationalism. I find it fascinating that only a short time ago in our country thet the conservative right was verbally attacking the French and renaming French fries and that some folks forgot that the French sent us the statue of Liberty. Looking at the play bill from last night it says:

"Welshman or Frenchmen. or Scottish or Irish, or anyone, all foreigners were mocked by the English court of the time. Welshmen were reported to be addicted to cheese and all dairy. Frenchmen were considered flamboyant and obnoxious."

I can't help but laugh when I read about the power elite spewing lines like this about preservationists and tree huggers in Buffalo and think how little we have changed from skewering others as fools. The rest of the world today has a thing or two to say about new order America. It is through literature and plays that critical voices for enlightenment cut through the injustice and wrongfulness. Shakespeare in name is a title to poke fun at foolishness and pompousness. The human condition will never change. Fools will always be fools and the mighty and angry man will always be a subject of the butt of the joke. We are adrift in the stuff that makes star light and a wet summer.

Now as the oil companies reap the wind fall profits, the corporations transfer the wealth of our country to the Middle East and off shore destinations and now people in Buffalo come to look for ways to spend an evening without feeding th gas pump monster. Here we have a polished gem of a play to dazzle and entertain and enlighten our summer.

Let the sky rain pin points of distant light instead of potatoes and water. If you have a brain and love a good laugh than ambulated or bike or drive down to Hoyt Lake and have some great and cheap fun this summer.

The Merry Wives of Windsor is a wonderfully written and performed comedy to lighten up our community.

Well done Shakespear in the Park. Thanks to the sponsors of this event and thanks to the actors and supporting staff for a complete evening of satisfaction.