Shakespeare and Co.

The small town of Cedar City makes a peaceful, lovely backdrop to the marvelous plays of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, winner of the 2000 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

And with it being within easy driving distance of Salt Lake City, you will not be disappointed by the professional quality of production.

As the festival enters its 45th season, it's still as thriving, strong and vibrant as ever. In spite of its name, Shakespeare is not the only playwright represented at the festival. Showcasing some of the best comedies, dramas and musicals from across the stages of time, the festival offers something for everyone.

Each evening at 7 there is a free outdoor performance called "The Greenshow." It is full of dancing, singing and juggling-all from Shakespeare's time and in full costume.

There is a beautiful replica of Shakespeare's own Globe Theatre, where his plays are performed.

Let's face it: It can take effort to watch a Shakespeare play. But with beautiful costuming, the fresh summer air wafting through the theater and well-delivered lines by each cast member, Cedar City's festival is well worth the effort.

Hamlet

There could be nothing rotten in the state of Utah as Hamlet opens with a smoothly polished bang.

Director J.R. Sullivan chose to keep the set to a minimum in the tradition of Tyrone Guthrie's 1930s Laurence Olivier production, when it reached Elsinore itself and was forced by a huge storm to change venues at the last moment. Keeping the performance so tight and so intimate exemplifies the intensity of the scenes.

Whether you are familiar with the works of Shakespeare or not, you will find that much of Hamlet is already familiar to you. There are many phrases that have remained in our speech for centuries, as well as concepts, story lines and ideas that have become part of our cultural lexicon-for example, the endlessly quoted "To be, or not to be."

The story, for those of you who may have avoided learning about it in an English class at some point, is one of revenge, honor and sense of self.

The king of Denmark recently died, and his son, Hamlet, has returned for the funeral-and the hasty marriage of his mother, the queen, to his father's brother. The king's ghost appears to his son and urges him to avenge his untimely and calculated death.

To add another layer of tragedy, there is also the poorly timed love affair of Hamlet and Ophelia-falling in love can be devastating for anyone with its emotional ups and downs, but when one of the lovers is battling intense personal demons and plotting murder, happy endings become just as intangible as ghosts in the mist. Madness, both feigned and compulsory, and tragedy bears us through to the end.

There is little comedy in this tragedy, but if you stick around for the gravediggers' scene, you'll get a good taste of the famous Shakespearean wit.

The first half of this play is a methodical build-up to the intensity of the second half, causing those with a poor attention span or a poor night's sleep to wander (the guy next to me fell asleep!). There is much dialogue and little action in the first, but the strength of Shakespeare lies in the marriage of poetry and plot, and Hamlet does not disappoint.

The outdoor theater is truly an enchanting setting for this play. However, when some idiot on a motorized scooter drowns out Ophelia's heart-wrenching monologue, you wonder for a moment if it's worth it.

This production is a clear reminder of why Hamlet remains one of the most-loved Shakespeare plays of all time.

Antony and Cleopatra

The festival offers a rare chance to see one of Shakespeare's most intense love stories live, the rarely produced tale of Antony and Cleopatra.

The scene opens with the rich tones of Egypt filling the stage, and we are at once drawn into the time and place of one of history's greatest passions, captured in the artful words of Shakespeare.

Unlike Romeo and Juliet, this is the story of mature love, of those who rule the world but who can still be cut to the quick by the indifference of a lover or exalted to the highest stars by the merest hint of a smile from the same. Seeing two such strong characters go weak in the knees for each other is humbling and wildly wrenching.

Performed on the simple, outdoor Globe-replica stage, director Nagle Jackson keeps the action clear by using the upper level of the stage for the scenes set in Rome and the lower level for scenes set in Egypt.

The first half of the play has a lot more comedy than you might expect from a tragic romance, the levity infecting even the bitterest moments. But as night falls, darkness permeates the action, and humor is mostly set aside in favor of catastrophe.

When Mark Antony and Octavius Caesar meet, the tension is nearly visible in the air between them, their first words pressing through the barrier and drawing them, hesitantly, into an arrangement for their mutual benefit.

Cleopatra's passion is as full and deep over the news of her lover's marriage as it is in her dreamy reverie over his absence. Cleopatra rewards a messenger generously as he weaves for her an impromptu tale of the inferior qualities of Antony's new wife.

The only weakness of this production of Shakespeare's greatest adult love story is that it is severely lacking chemistry. The lead actress, Jacqueline Antaramian, is wild and passionate and feels like Cleopatra. Bill Christ's Antony is tall and strong and seems fitting for the character. But somehow their energies don't mix, and they leave the love story pale. Otherwise, this is a beautiful production.

Room Service

From start to finish, this play-about-a-play written by John Murray and Allen Boretz will keep you laughing as the characters keep you guessing-they are masters of deceit, as only the desperate and destitute can be.

A sweet and innocent playwright comes to the city to check on the status of his play-only to be drawn into the hijinks of the producer and director. This pair is so far past broke that they have hocked taxidermied owls and have skipping out on hotel bills down to a science.

The comic timing of this play is genius, as we are dragged through many haphazardly hatched plans that come together to only nearly solve the characters' problems time after time. They take so many wrong turns you'll get whiplash and have trouble guessing the ending.

This favorite line captures the silly mood of the play: "I'll give the best performance you'll ever see in a hotel bedroom." Don't worry; it wasn't what you think.

Brian Vaughn, who also plays Hamlet, is a festival favorite in his role as the hari-kari producer. He delivers his punch lines with a casualness that fits like a good suit.

Clearly, this is the most fun play of the festival, adored by both audiences and critics alike. When you take time to head south for this festival, this is the play you won't want to miss.