Missing Shakespeare's Punchlines

Jenna organized a family outing to the CCM (Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music) production of Midsummer's Night Dream at the Patricia Corbett theater last night.  The first Shakespeare play that Mom took me to was Midsummer's Night Dream (probably back in the 60's).  So it was ironic that the set and costumes were set in the 1960's but the prose was all "Shakespearean". 

It was either the acoustics or my unpracticed listening of the Shakespeare prose that created the feeling that I was sitting in a foreign country wishing for translation headphones.  Even my faded memory of the plot was little help in understanding what the actors were saying.  It's a shame to hear the rest of the audience laugh while you sit there dumbfounded on what they are laughing about (like missing the punch line of a joke).

By the second act (and late into the evening), there was some question of whether we would stick it out. Poor Ellen probably didn't understand a word or thing about what was going on. But feeling the duty of not skipping English Literature class at high school/college, we stuck it out to the end.

Missing a few punchlines is no great tragedy.