Happenings

Last night we visited the Lincoln Amphitheatre in Lincoln State Park, Lincoln City, Indiana. I had been to the amphitheatre a couple of times several years ago to watch a play about Abraham Lincoln’s early years, concentrating on the time he spent in Indiana, and also a rendition of Fiddler on the Roof. The theatre closed down in 2005, but was reopened last year. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed. The actual play was not as good as the one I remembered seeing there some years ago. The current one is too difficult to follow. It begins with Lincoln’s assassination, and then has flashbacks to his boyhood years in Indiana, combined with flashbacks of his presidency and the Civil War. The cast did an excellent job. I just think the script was not the greatest. Seems like maybe they tried to cram too much into a short space, or having two storylines running together was confusing or something. On the upside, they did throw in a lot of good quotes from Lincoln, which were interesting (but mostly already forgotten!), and the guy who played Lincoln as president did an excellent job. Also, it seems like the acoustics weren’t as good as what I remember from before. I had a really hard time telling what people were saying. You had to listen very carefully and watch their mouths move. And to make matters worse, a pretty good thunderstorm came through, which made it even harder to hear for a while. Oh well. My kids all said they enjoyed it so I suppose that’s worth something.