Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth (Washoe County, Nevada)

Photo courtesy of Google

For the last 46 years, July has marked the start of the annual run the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. Each year, a different masterpiece pinned by the Bard over 400 years ago is brought to life on the stage at Sand Harbor State Park with the Blue Waters of Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mountains as a backdrop. I have been fortunate enough to have attended the last five or six years, and this year I was incredibly pleased to learn "the Scottish Play", otherwise known as Macbeth, had been selected, because I have never seen a performance of this great work.

I've always found seating at the tables to be preferable to any other option. While tickets to the seating for two are a bit more expensive, the leg room, wait service, and leg/elbow room make it easily a bargain. Arriving an hour or so before the curtain, we ordered dinner and enjoyed a light meal while taking in the magnificent scenery of the amphitheater. There can be no better place to see such a meaningful exploration of what it means to be human than the open air of Lake Tahoe. The combination of William Shakespeare's masterfully chosen verse with the eye-candy of one of the most beautiful alpine lakes on Earth is not an easily dismissed experience.

At 7:30 pm on the dot, the actors took the stage and over the next five acts, we witnessed these masters of their craft bring the Bard's work to life before our eyes. Erin Partin, as Lady Macbeth, gave the stand out performance, but all of the actors were outstanding. Seeing Macbeth and his power-hungry wife descend into madness as they lie and murder their way to the Scottish throne was a true look into the mirrors of our human desires and ambition, and the horrible price they may exact. Shakespeare was called the "soul of the age" and his insight into the human condition is unparalleled. As a young man in high school and college, I struggled to find the greatness in his works, but as a middle-aged traveler on the highway of life, I see it and recognize his greatness.