If Music Be the Food of Love..

.. play on.

The weather was kind and so the play was indeed on - and it was fantastic!

Surrounded by the reassuring sound of champagne corks popping and a sea of Waitrose picnic food, we picked our spot and then passed the time cartwheeling across the lawns and eating our tea while I tried to conceal our haribos in the infinitely-more-becoming mint crumbles bag, bought specially for the occasion.

The play was performed by a traditional all-male troupe which adds to the fantastic confusion of a man playing a woman who is disguised as a man. It's asking a lot of a 7 year old and a 9 year old to follow but our pre-reading last week really paid off.

As the play opened and the first infamous line was delivered with gusto W expressed his confusion at ye olde English language with an embarrassingly loud 'HUH?' while dramatically shrugging his shoulders. I reached for the Fox's glacier fruits like a child-shushing ninja.

K was mesmerised from the beginning and it only took a little while for W to get drawn into the rhythm of the play with me whispering the main character names as they appeared on stage. As the farce continued apace we passed notes to keep abreast of the story line. Amazingly, both kept up although evidence suggests K was briefly distracted by the glacier fruits..

We laughed ourselves silly when Malvolio appeared in his yellow stockings. We were on the edge of our seat during the duel. The boys loved Feste the fool's lute playing and singing. The teenagers in front of us giggled every time the word 'bosoms' was uttered. It was pure joy.

And posh though Waddesdon Manor is, you can still get a Smarties ice-cream during the interval.

The boys may have consumed a week's worth of sugar in one evening but it was well worth it. As I tucked the boys in at 11pm, a final thought from K :

"I like Shakespeare Mummy"

So do I darling. Why this is very midsummer madness.