Photograph by Sarah McCosham
A few weekends ago, my family decided to catch a free performance of Hamlet courtesy of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. I am a big fan of the CSC; during college I took advantage of the student ticket rates and saw pretty much The Bard’s entire oeuvre. Live theater is such an enriching experience and while the CSC has some very cool digs downtown, for me, nothing beats an outdoor performance. I have vivid childhood memories of sitting on the lawn at Riverbend, sipping Diet Barq’s from a squishy koozie and getting eaten up by mosquitos. This is a quintessential “summer in Cincinnati” experience I want to share with my kids, and so on a muggy Saturday afternoon we headed over to Beech Acres Park to see the troupe’s production of Hamlet
We didn’t see Hamlet.
Photograph by Sarah McCosham
When we arrived at an empty park, a quick social media check revealed that night’s production had been canceled due to actor illnesses. Whoops.
So we did what anyone living in 2024 does best: we pivoted.
The playground at Beech Acres Park beckoned. Accessibility is the throughline of the playground, which boasts myriad age-specific areas that invite imaginative and physical play. In one area, sand pits and tunnels make for a bit of a rugged “playscape” experience. Another zone boasts multiple climbing walls that kept Mary, Harvey, and Pearl busy. During the summer, a splash park with lots of fountains makes this park a multi-season superstar. Meanwhile, Julian was more than happy to swing the entire time.
Photograph by Sarah McCosham
And even though my kids might have aged out of the imaginative play areas, Mary definitely enjoyed playing “train station” at the miniature depot with Pearl. (There’s also a pretend “store” in this area, a setup that never goes out of style!)
There are times I feel deeply nostalgic for my childhood: the phoneless, free-range, less complicated existence of the ’80s and ’90s. I worry about my kids growing up in this noisy, plugged-in, overwhelming world; I mourn the absence of those simple, carefree experiences that have formed core memories and made me who I am today.
Photograph by Sarah McCosham
But you know what’s also made me who I am today? Parenthood. A pandemic. Life. My kids attacked that playground with gusto, making the best of a situation that didn’t go as planned. My four have a resilience that comes with being part of life in 2024—we all do—and that’s something special.
As for Hamlet, we caught a performance a few weekends later. Existential crisis averted.
Beech Acres Park, 6910 Salem Rd., Anderson Twp.
Photograph by Sarah McCosham
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