Since I didn't want to see matinees on two consecutive days, I chose to attend an evening performance on Sunday. Hence, I had an entirely open day. I decided to go hiking.
These pictures illustrate the day's activities.
First, however, I needed fuel. I chose to eat breakfast/lunch at the Wild Goose Cafe and Bar, which is really more of a roadside diner. Here's my review.
I drove north to the Table Rocks. The Table Rocks are two hills, the tops of which are flat like a tabletop. They were created when lava covered the entire area. Over time, most of the lava eroded due to the strength of a river. Only these two hills remain.
I hiked both upper and lower Table Rock. They're the same height--they're only called that because one is up-stream of the other.
The day, despite being overcast, was hotter than I expected or in fact brought clothes for on this trip.
I hiked the lower Table Rock first, mainly because its parking lot had space when I arrived and the upper one did not. This hike was perhaps six miles round-trip and eight hundred feet elevation gain. The upper Table Rock hike was shorter; I did its round trip in a bit more than an hour. The sights seen on both hikes were basically identical. I took practically no pictures on the second hike because everything looked the same as on the first one.
While hiking, I passed many families with kids, often six or eight years old. Why is this worth mentioning? Because the parents were about my age. Some were even younger. Scary!
After hiking, I returned to Ashland for an early dinner at Omar's, a seafood and steak place where I ate during my last visit. Here's my new review. Over dinner, I eavesdropped at the table next to me. One guy, my age, was visiting two people I assumed to be his parents. They turned out not to be. I'm not sure what their relationship was. The guy had just moved from San Jose to Alameda; the group spent much of dinner talking about features of various parts of the bay area. (I think the older couple previously lived down there.)
Then I went to see the evening show of Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare's tragedies that I never heard of before. I thought the last theater was a nice size. This one was tiny: a square stage is surrounded by the audience on all sides; there's only six rows of seats. I was in the third row.
Here's my reaction to the play:
A decent tragedy set in Rome, when the patrician, aristocratic, wealthy, landowning, generally military class rules, and the plebeians farm, serve as foot soldiers, and generally exert no power.
The play is about class conflict in a nation beset by war and is, as such, timeless. It’s also about the difficulty in translating military fame in political power and in translating military knowledge and strategies into political ones. In addition, it comments on how easily public opinion can be swayed. Finally, in its title character, it portrays how modesty can, surprisingly, live side-by-side with egotism.
Costumes were modern. Characters wore 20th century military or revolutionary outfits with rifles, pistols, laser sights, knifes, etc. Plebeians in particular often wore sweatshirts (hoodies) with faces of activists such as Lennon.
In the play and in the performance, blood (or at least a red liquid) flowed.
Given the staging’s modern feel, it's not surprising scene changes happen much like they do in movies: a flash, loud noise, a dramatic shift in lighting, and an obvious changing of the place the viewer is supposed to look.
The actor playing Menenius (an old patrician) was great! And I’m not simply saying that because I liked the character. It’s clear he put his heart and soul into every word he spoke and physical action he made.
Interestingly, in both plays I saw, a couple sitting near me never returned from intermission.
One thing that struck me, perhaps prompted by the theme for the play, was that the Shakespeare festival in general seems to be filled with old, white, possibly wealthy people. (The tickets aren't cheap.)
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