One of my favorite places in the world is a red brick building on an emerald patch of heaven in Montgomery, Alabama.
I’d let the years slip by without visiting. Two decades. Like an old friend, I missed this little oasis of literature and decided to do something about it last fall.
I was supposed to be working on a Nanowrimo project, but things got rough. I took a breather and clicked over to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival website — when inspiration hit!
A play! Yes! The play’s the thing!
I discovered two upcoming Shakespeare plays, All’s Well That Ends Well and Hamlet. I chose “Hamlet” because there are so many famous quotes taken from this play — plus, I figured my son might like the sword-fighting scenes. My husband liked the idea and so we bought a few extra tickets for extended family to join us, (which made great Christmas presents!).
Then the waiting began. April seemed forever away — but finally the big date arrived. We headed down the highway to Montgomery … and a trip down memory lane for me.
When I was an English major at Auburn University, my professors took us to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival every quarter. I remember seeing tragedies “Romeo and Juliet” and “Julius Caesar,” and the comic “As You Like It.” It was such a treat to get away from dorm life and essay exams. I loved seeing the plays performed live on the stage.
I never imagined 20 years later, I’d be bringing my own family with me.
When we entered the theater, the room seemed hazy, as a smoke machine of some sort created an atmosphere of fog. Nearly every seat was filled, and I noticed rows and rows of teenagers.
We sat next to a group of kids, and I wondered if they were on a field trip. I struck up a conversation with their teacher who told me there were 60 students altogether, from a Christian school literary club in northeast Alabama.
The girl next to me wore blue jeans and smiled at me, popping gum and showing her braces. “I can’t wait for this to start,” she confided. “Our teacher told us all about it. I think Hamlet is going to be so cool.”
Behind us, a row of teens chatted and laughed, some texting on neon cell phones, others nodding in rhythm to unknown tunes from their ipods. I wondered if they would get Shakespeare. Would it seem too, you know, ancient for them?
The play began, and we were all spellbound.
Nathan Hosner’s portrayal of Hamlet was so realistic I don’t think you had to understand a single word to know what emotions he expressed. We held our breath as he soliloquized and felt our eyes water up at the tragedy.
We were the audience Shakespeare originally wrote for, the masses who sought escape from the sweat and toil of Elizabethan England.
I peeked at the girl next to me and the row of teens behind me. They were all leaning forward, perched on the edge of their seats, not a whisper among them. Over four hundred years after this play was written, we were still totally enthralled.
At the intermission, I overheard a girl behind me say, “When are they all gonna start getting killed? I thought everybody dies in this play.”
“It’s coming up,” somebody answered.
And of course, in the end, the tragedy unfolds with devastating consequences. We left, pondering how it all happened, what Hamlet should have done differently, why revenge isn’t the best course of action, etc.
In the program, Dr. William Engel explained:
Part of why this play remains so popular is its fearless examination of human nature. It explores, among other things, authentic responses to grief and mourning, the uncertain line between sanity and madness, the stresses of dating and marriage, and the pressures of living up to parents’ expectations.
Shakespeare spoke to all of us that evening, whether we dressed up in coat and tie or donned our favorite blue jeans. I can’t wait to go back again.
As an added bonus to our trip, we swung by Auburn on the way home, my first time back in 15 years. It’s the place where I learned to love the lines of Shakespeare, and where a whole new generation is reading him now.
Samford Hall, Auburn University
