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2026 Oberon Shakespeare Festival - The Play's The Thing
April 2, 2026
2026 Rotary Oberon Shakespeare Festival wound up with a performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Malachi Gilmore Hall by Come You Spirits. The original pna was to have the performance in Oberon Common but the weather had other ideas.
The change of venue didn't detract from the performance and may have even improved it by having the action much closer to the audience.
The
festival was a project of
Oberon
Rotary and they have to be both thanked and congratulated
for having the foresight (and courage) to bring this event to
Oberon. With very few members the effort was remarkable.
There's not a lot that can be said about the show, so let's just look at some pictures.
Before the show.
Let the play begin.
The cast and Rotary members
About Come You Spirits.
The troupe has this to say about themselves.
We're a touring troupe of actors - Jo Bloom, Charles Mayer, David Halgren, Ciarán O'Riordan, Ella Havelka, Willa King, Charlotte Edwards, with story-guide Nathan Meola, and we perform all the plays in our repertoire in magnificent indoor and outdoor spaces, to music composed by Brandon Read, in lighting designed by Adam Applebaum, with photography by Syl Marie. (See the company cast here.)
We adapt Shakespeare plays to be told by only a handful of characters, so it's clear and it's magical.
Come You Spirits in action.
Their web site can be found here.
Note about the page background: The faint image you see in the background is the first page of Romeo and Juliet as printed in the First Folio of Shakespeare's works, published in 1623. The image is courtesy of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
