Lockdown prevents San Quentin prisoner's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' performance

June 9, 11:42 AMCulture & Events ExaminerRick Marianetti

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Culture & Events Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

San Francisco Bay view from San Quentin Prison

Alas, the long, magical night in an enchanted forest was not to be. The San Quentin prisoner's annual Shakespeare presentation was suddenly canceled yesterday due to a prison lockdown.

Representing the Warden's Office, Samuel Robinson said the facility had gone into lockdown mode--visitors detained from entering, prisoners rounded up and confined to their cells--less than two hours before Theseus, Duke of Athens, had a chance to express his impatience over upcoming wedding bells.

With the romantic flourish of a bookkeeper preparing a payroll sheet, Theseus opens the play addressing Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, who he'd "wooed...with his sword."

Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon; but, O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager,
Long withering out a young man's revenue.

Sounds like the Duke could use a few stiff drops of Puck's "love juice."

Much of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is fueled by the euphoriant d'amour, a psychoactive substance precociously similar to MDMA (Ecstasy). Ironically, a large sign at the prison entrance forbids anything remotely resembling the stuff.

"IT IS A FELONY to bring upon these grounds any firearms, intoxicating liquors, beer, wine, narcotics, Benzedrine, or other dangerous drugs."

Possibly written by Lord Alvin Redund after he'd consumed much too much intoxicating liquor, the sign perplexingly singles out Benzedrine, an amphetamine first sold commercially in the US in 1932.  While producer David O. Selznick notoriously gobbled "bennies" on the set of Gone with the Wind (1939), Benzedrine use peaked during the Beatnick era--which unfortunately is not the case for other forms of amphetamine.

While the Lord doesn't explicitly mention Puck's love juice, given it's effect on the principle characters in "Dream," using the drops and large power tools at the same time should be avoided.

BTW, Mr. Robinson from the Warden's Office later explained the lockdown was initiated because equipment of a nature he was not at liberty to discuss was missing. The equipment was later located and secured at 9:50 AM.

Robinson said there are less than 10 lockdowns a year; anything from a prisoner unaccounted for to a full-scale riot can trigger lockdown-mode.

The prisoner's drama class performance will be rescheduled at a later date to be announced.

All photos by Rick Marianetti except and not including Lord Alvin Redund, who was not photographed by this writer.