If you can get past the cognitive dissonance, it's well worth it. Also good to go with people who will discuss it later. Perhaps if a performance is coming up, you can read the play first and then go to it. A word on opera: If you have The Met: Live in HD being put on in your city -- and it's just about everywhere now -- go to it. It will really change your opera experience -- but dammit hammit, find someone who won't sleep through it and bite his nails when he's awake.But anytime I've tried to view something spoken in Shakespearean language (Shakespeare in the Park, Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo & Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing)... my mind simply can't grok/parse it
-- some plays are really hard to follow - especially the histories. Everyone betrays everyone, everyone is one another's cousin...