By Staff Writer: Grace Anders
It is the coldest week of the year in southwest Wisconsin with negative temperatures causing school closings and public service announcements advising residents to stay inside; but the Bardathon must go on! Shakespeare fanatics have braved the cold to continue a 24/7 weeklong reading of the complete works of Shakespeare at the Pumphouse Theatre in La Crosse.
As a plume of steam unfurls from a hot cup of coffee on an icy morning, iambic pentameter unfurls from the well-worn copies of the complete works of Shakespeare distributed amongst the die-hard attendees. The play is Macbeth, the time is 4 a.m. and the event is the fourth annual Bardathon.
The event kicked off on Jan. 18 at Arkadia, a renovated church turned event space, in Viroqua. On day four it moved to the Pumphouse Theatre in La Crosse for the final three days of the event. A zoom link is available for anyone to join virtually, at any time of the day or night. Over the course of a week, the poetry and enduring themes of Shakespeare’s 38 plays and 154 sonnets are read aloud in a continual stream, starting with “Romeo and Juliet” and closing with “Richard III”. The Bardathon is a chance for people to experience the timeless works of Shakespeare in their intended form of spoken word, connect with other Shakespeare enthusiasts and earn the right to say you participated in a weeklong, non-stop ode to the Bard.