Utah Shakespeare Festival

Why should you go to the Utah Shakespeare Festival? To see Brian Vaughn and David Ivers. The first time I saw them perform was a few years back when they starred in the two man play Stones in His Pocket with them playing all 15 characters. I thought they did a terrific job. Since then anytime I see that they are going to perform in a play I am attending, I know I am in for a treat and this year was no exception.

The last weekend of August AJ, AMM, JR and I headed to Cedar City to the Shakespeare Festival. Just an FYI there are two Best Westerns in Cedar City (yeah, I went to go check in after waiting in line to find out I was off by a few blocks) and if you miss the overpass to get to the west side of the freeway to go eat at the elusive Café Rio you end up on the freeway heading south to Kanarraville (10 miles south) which is the next time you can turn around to head back in the right direction. So after a rushed dinner at Del Taco (order medium because I can’t even imagination how huge their large portions would be) since I took everyone on an adventure we went to the Friday evening performance of The 39 Steps, a hilarious spoof on Hitchcock films using the plot of 39 steps to deliver it.

Once again it was 4 actors playing about 30 roles it seemed with Brian Vaughn and David Ivers stealing the show once again. The best part was David making Brian forget his line because he was trying so hard not to laugh that he came out and said I forgot my line. The props were part of the spoof – the phone still ringing when it was picked up, the birds falling from the sky, everything was made out of luggage. The train chasing scene with its special effects was amazing. I am so impressed who came up with that. It really looked like Brian was on crawling below the train. I laughed so hard and enjoyed the performance so much, I have to say it ranks as one of my favorites.

After the play we headed to our hotel and slept to the noise of everyone’s toilets flushing. The plumbing was so loud you heard water continually running from all the surrounding rooms. Next morning after breakfast we explored Cedar City. We went to a furniture/jewelry/bookstore. Then we took JR to a Cedar City classic the store that has everything it is a drugstore/sporting goods/computer/jewelry/home décor/kitchenware/nick knack collectible store. JR loved it and said it was worth the trip just to go through four different stores without ever walking outside. Then we headed to a clothing store to shop the high fashions but it really lacked. Then we ate at the Pastry Pub. The food is average but the reason you is to eat the Chocolate Tiger Cake. I do not know what they put in it but it really is heaven on earth. I crave it year long.

Then we saw Much Ado About Nothing which is the second time this summer to see this production (Whole Lotta Fussin’ Over Nothin’ being the other). David once again made the performance for me. I wonder if he is just as funny in real life as he is on stage. Then we hung out around campus in a wind storm and finally gave up and decide to go eat dinner and came back for our final evening performance of Pride and Prejudice.

I could write a blog post just on the book Pride and Prejudice and one day I will but let me just get back to the play. I loved Brian’s performance as Mr. Collins. Ellen Crawford did excellent job as Mrs. Bennett as well. I thought it was funny how Mr. Darcy’s character kept ending up in the time out corner it seemed. After the performance we would have headed to the Pastry Pub for dessert but no, they were closed so no chocolate tiger cake for me.

We drove home and right when I pulled into my driveway at 2:45 am I noticed my car was smoking (really steaming) and I was leaking radiator fluid. Luckily I made it home and we were not stranded in the middle of nowhere on our journey. Until next summer, I will dream about that chocolate tiger cake since there is not a fall performance we are going down to see this year.