The final bow: Shakespeare's last four nights at Ijams Park
This time it's real — the 36th Knoxville Shakespeare festival ends Sunday. Henry V plays Thursday (pay-what-you-can) and Saturday; The Merry Wives of Windsor takes Friday and the festival's last night.
Two weeks ago we called the wrong weekend Shakespeare's last and had to take it back. This time the calendar and the company agree: the 36th Knoxville Shakespeare festival plays its final four nights on the Ijams Park lawn this weekend, and when Falstaff takes his last bow Sunday evening, that's the season.
- Thu Aug 6
- King Henry V — pay-what-you-can
- Fri Aug 7
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- Sat Aug 8
- King Henry V — final performance
- Sun Aug 9
- Merry Wives — the festival's last bow
- Curtain
- 7:30 PM nightly · doors 7
- Tickets
- $20 · Thursday pay-what-you-can · under 15 free
- Bring
- A chair or blanket · parking free 30 min before
The order of exit
King Henry V opens the farewell Thursday — and Thursday is still pay-what-you-can, so the cheapest possible way into professional Shakespeare remains the week's opener. Merry Wives takes Friday. Saturday is your last chance at Henry V — Agincourt, the St. Crispin's Day speech, all of it — and Sunday night The Merry Wives of Windsor closes the whole festival. Doors at 7, curtain 7:30, every night.
The practicals, one last time
Twenty dollars a ticket except Thursday; kids under fifteen free through Penny for the Arts; parking free starting thirty minutes before curtain; the lawn is the seating, so bring the chair or the blanket; and if it rains, the show moves indoors rather than away. After Sunday, the lawn goes back to the fireflies until next summer.
