Proceeds benefit the preservation, collections management, and interpretation efforts of Cranbrook’s Center for Collection and Research

With William Shakespeare serving as our muse, the Center’s second Edible Landscapes Dinner wove together the histories of Cranbrook House and Cranbrook’s Greek Theatre with the sumptuous feasts penned by the great English Bard in his plays, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In June 1916, George and Ellen Booth and their guests attended The Cranbrook Masque in the recently completed Greek Theatre. Commissioned by George Booth, written by Sidney Coe Howard (who would later become famous for his screen play adaptation of the book Gone With the Wind), and produced by the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, this dedicatory play told the story of the conflict between romance and materialism. Exactly one hundred years later—to the month—St. Dunstan’s Theatre Guild of Cranbrook is celebrating the centennial of the theatre’s first play with a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman.
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes.
Feed him with apricots and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honeybags steal from the humble-bees, …

--A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 155-159)

While scenes of A Midsummer Night’s Dream are filled with colorful references to edible flora and fauna, the five courses of this second “Edible Landscapes” dinner drew upon the feasts depicted throughout all of Shakespeare’s plays. After all, Cranbrook House itself draws on inspiration from the country homes of England’s Tudor period (1485-1603), the era during which Shakespeare wrote his plays.