Romeo and Juliet

Tonight we went to an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. This was held at the National Cat Centre, which is just a short walk from our house. Here is the description of what we went to see: http://www.cats.org.uk/news/shakespeares-star-crossed-lovers/. And here is the stage with audience. We sat on picnic blankets which are just center-left in this photo (Tryfan is wearing a gray and white striped top and my Dad is wearing a blue jacket).
We brought a picnic dinner and enjoyed it while we were waiting for the show to start. Unfortunately Rhodri had to cancel at the last minute and stay home to attend to work-related issues, but the rest of us had a grand time.
It was just a small stage and there were only 5 actors (2 female and 3 male), and it was absolutely amazing! The acting troop is called Illyria and they are fantastic. Here is a wider view of the scene.. not a huge audience but it did fill out as we got closer to show time. We showed up about an hour before so that we could (a) get a good spot to sit, and (b) have plenty of time to run around in the grass and trees before sitting quietly.

The kids loved the fight scenes, especially Tryfan! He was laughing and sitting up on his knees just totally enthralled by the drama. The people sitting around us kept turning to look at Tryfan and smiling because he was just so into it.
At one point the actors invited some audience members up to take part in a dancing scene.
The performance went on until about 1030pm but at the 9pm intermission, we called Rhodri to come get the kids and take them home to bed. Sitting still and not talking is hard for small ones, but they did really great. Anyway, we figured we would quit while we were ahead and it was the right decision in this case. My parents and I walked home after the show in the dark starry night and it was just so lovely.
But the National Cat Centre deserves some words as well!! This place is amazing -- there are clearly some very very wealthy donors who must have dearly loved cats. There are a handful of enormous and stylish buildings on the 25-acre (ish) site, one of which is the Cat Adoption centre. This building has several wings: 2 wings for cats ready to adopt (each cat having its own little 2-bedroom space), a maternity and young family wing (!!) and of course an administration wing to keep track of the herds of people they have working there. This place has to be seen to be believed - its something else.