Last night Kim and I headed over to the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis to check out Beer, Burgers, and the Bard. I heard about it through City Pages via The Hot Dish a while back and thought it sounded like something that both Kim and I would enjoy. Me, the burgers and beer and Kim the show and the burgers. $60 for a nice night out at the Guthrie? Bring it on.

The burgers and beer were being served at the Level Five Cafe. It was a private party and thus they had nothing else to offer aside from what we paid for in advance. The burgers themselves were small, overcooked, and just bleh. They were served with a small bag of Fritos and came with oversized portions of mayo and ketchup. After we ate we decided we needed something a little extra and headed down to Cue for an appetizer of polenta fries and another beer for me. The fries were plentiful and tasty–definitely not my great grandmother’s polenta.

After finishing there we headed up to the Wurtele Thrust Stage and took our seats. They were fairly similar to the ones we had for the Dark Star Orchestra show we saw there in February of last year. This play was based on Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona and is performed as if it were a live television production in 1955. They had two large black and white video screens on either side of the stage which were showing old commercials prior to the play starting and showed shots from the stage when the actors were not facing the audience.

The first half of the play sucked, bad. It dragged on and on, aided by the woman sitting in the row behind us chaperoning a group of students who laughed like Beavis and Butthead at the most inappropriate times. The second half went by much faster for whatever reason perhaps because the dolt behind us had more or less stopped her stupidity hopefully after my mocking clued her in to her horrid laugh. Overall the play was fine but sadly none of the actors really stood out and were upstaged by the dog who was pretty damn sweet. When they were taking their bows after the conclusion of the show he got the best round of clapping of anyone. Congrats to you Wyatt.

Aside from the mediocre burgers and the moron in the audience, it was a great way to spend Saint Patrick’s Day with my wife. I got to drink beer and stay away from most of the drunks. Yay.

Being that the overwhelming majority of you decided to avoid going out last night, what did you decide to do on Saint Patrick Day instead? After you share feel free to peruse the pictures from last night on Flickr here.

Related posts:

1. Dark Star Orchestra at the Guthrie Theater: 2/4/08; Minneapolis, MN
2. Dark Star Orchestra at the Guthrie Theater: Minneapolis, MN
3. Imperial Extra Double Stout and Beer Assortment
4. Beer, Wine, or Soft Drinks Poll