Summer Adventure #2

'Sit by my side and let the world slide, we shall ne'er be younger'  

The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare

This wasn't so far flung an adventure as the Welsh mountains, but it's a summer outing so I'm still counting it. Last Saturday I went with the family and some friends to Longborough Festival Opera to see my brother in The Taming of the Shrew with the Gloucestershire Youth Players. 

Afraid I have no idea who this is meant to be...

Longborough is a small theatre in the middle of the Cotswold countryside, attached to a lovely little manor (complete with folly) and picnic grounds. Unfortunately the increasingly inclement weather meant that our picnic turned into a 'how many people + picnic can you fit in our car?' game. 

The view from the courtyard

Luckily it was still light enough for some pics during the interval, as it was a lovely location! Plus the ever-present threat of cloud made for some dramatic skies and lighting. I anticipate some bias so I won't write about the play much, except to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it(yet was actually quite traumatised at the same time, both for the woman-breaking and the sibling cross dressing that went on with my wonderful brother as Petruchio.) You can tell they've worked so hard on it and are an incredibly talented group of people. Bravo! They performed in the gardens of Wadham College last Sunday, and are at the open air Dell theatre in Stratford this Sunday (so no doubt that's where my next adventure will take me)

Note the folly on the left hand side - unfortunately the interval was too short for me to go exploring this time

The Opera House itself, and some charming thespian types