<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/amdram-merchant-of-veniceM.jpg"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-2654" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/amdram-merchant-of-veniceM-200x183.jpg" alt="amdram-merchant-of-venice(M" width="200" height="183" /></a>As part of our ideology to support local culture we bought tickets for a showing of The Merchant of Venice at Osgodby village hall. We thought it was a professional touring company as we've seen some very good productions however it turned out it was a local <a href="http://www.amicitouringtheatre.co.uk/" target="_blank">amateur dramatic group</a>. Let's face it Shakespeare is pretty daunting for professional actors so why amateurs throw themselves into such a challenge I don't know.

I'm trying to be positive here - Shylock was very good as were the female actors however there were some players who not only hadn't learnt their lines their acting wasn't just wooden it was chip board. OK you might say learning all those lines is difficult and I certainly couldn't do it but knowing that I couldn't, I wouldn't attempt to do it. Somehow someone has convinced these people to get up in front of an audience and "do" Shakespeare. Now I know why I've resisted AmDram all these years. It has inspired us to book up for The Merchant of Venice at Stratford to see how it should be performed.