Editor's Note: This is the fifth installment of The Mom Review, a summer-long series of reviews of family-friendly theater, dance, art exhibits, etc., by iBerkshires Community Editor Rebecca Dravis and her 8-year-old daughter, Noelle, who hope to give you some ideas for summer family fun.

LENOX, Mass. — A visit to the Rose Footprint Theatre at Shakespeare & Company is a highlight of our summer. The comedy staged annually in the tented theater is always entertaining, interactive and very kid-friendly.

This year's "The Servant of Two Masters" is all of those, but it wasn't as funny as previous Rose shows. It also has the misfortune of being up against "The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged)," which is playing in the Tina Packer Playhouse and is the funniest thing I have seen a very long time. (Read the Mom Review here.)

So while I was entertained, I did not laugh as much as maybe I would have liked.

The play is an adaptation of this classic Commedia dell’arte farce by Carlo Goldoni and features an energetic cast of young local actors. It tells the story of an outrageous and crafty servant, Truffaldino, a threadbare clown in mad search of food, money and attention. In one implausible day, Truffaldino simultaneously ends up with two masters and two jobs – and what Truffaldino doesn’t know is that his masters are star-crossed lovers, and one of them is only disguised as a man. But they aren’t the only lovers in town as two impatient old parents attempt to plan a wedding between children that will bring the highest return on their investment. Truffaldino’s predicament stirs up a ridiculous chain of events as he sets out to keep his double service concealed, find romance himself - and get some dinner.

I think the main reason I did not find this play as funny as previous performances was that it just slightly TOO over the top, slightly TOO dramatic for my tastes. It was almost like watching a cariacture of a really good farce.

Kids, though, always seem to love it. Noelle was entertained, though she did not understand the story, which is common with fast-paced productions that have multiple plot twists. Kids will just enjoy it for what it is: colorful costumes, amusing songs, sword fighting, actors running through the audience and around the theater interacting with the audience, etc. There was a baby fussing in the back of the show we saw, so I would recommend caution with infants and toddlers, but preschoolers on up should find it an enjoyable 80 minutes.

Now for Noelle: It was really funny. I like how they come up and down the aisles. And I like the song at the beginning where they sing about the rules. I loved the sword fighting. My favorite part was the scene in the dining room where they sang about dinner. I would go see it again.

The show runs through Aug. 23 on Fridays, Saturdays and Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are free for students and $15 for adults. For tickets and information, visit shakespeare.org.

Editor's Note: This is the fourth installment of The Mom Review, a summer-long series of reviews of family-friendly theater, dance, art exhibits, etc., by iBerkshires Community Editor Rebecca Dravis and her 8-year-old daughter, Noelle, who hope to give you some ideas for summer family fun.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williamstown Theatre Festival is not necessarily known to be as community-minded as some of the year-round theater companies in the Berkshires. But they do stage a piece of free theater every year, and this year's offering was "Robin Hood," performed in the Poker Flats area of Williams College. On a lovely and cool opening night, Noelle and I went to see the play.

I'm not a theater critic, and this column is not meant to be a theater review. It is meant to give families information on whether particular plays would interest their children. However, with this play, I'm finding it difficult to separate the two.

I did not enjoy this play. Noelle didn't, either. It had nothing to do with WTF's capabilities or the atmosphere (as muddy as it was) of theater under the stars. We saw "The Comedy of Errors" there in 2011 and thought it was hysterical and "Dracula" there last year and found it chillingly entertaining. The problem with "Robin Hood" was that it didn't know if it wanted to be a comedy or a drama. Obviously "The Comedy of Errors" is a comedy and "Dracula" is a drama, but "Robin Hood" really could go either way. And if it had gone one way or the other, we might have enjoyed it more.

Instead, it started out with some very serious actors with some very serious accents. Noelle had trouble understanding the beginning, and to be honest, I did, too. I never think it's a good idea for emerging performers to try accents, especially in outdoor theater, where you never know what noise is going to interfere with the extra listening required to decipher the language. I understand from WTF's perspective, this is the perfect place for them to hone their accent skills, but it just didn't work out for me this night.

But as the play went on, it seemed to lighten up, become more comedic, even as the actors' accents started to slip until Sherwood Forest sounded like an international melting pot. We liked the second half more than the first because all of a sudden, we were watching something much funnier and more entertaining. And who doesn't love to laugh?

Also confusing to both of us was the use of one actor for two roles, a convention used several times in this play. The subtle transformation born from the necessity of a fast-paced outdoor play did not separate the characters with enough distinction for Noelle (and me, too) to keep a grip on who was who in the beginning. (And once I realized this was happening, I would have sworn the bishop and the friar were the same actor.) It became even more confusing when suddenly near the end some costume changes happened right in front of us on stage. Maybe the director thought that was funny? It might have been, if it happened throughout the play and not just near the end.

So from one mom to another, think twice about taking younger children to this play, for all the reasons above plus that it doesn't start until 7:30 p.m., doesn't end until after 9:30 p.m. and is staged in a wet and muddy field with only two portable toilets on site. Older kids - tweens and teens - might enjoy it. And maybe after opening night they realized what worked and what didn't and tweaked it some. Good theater companies do that, and WTF is a good theater company.

Of course, it's free, so you really have nothing to lose, and you can always leave during intermission.

Now for Noelle: I liked the music and sword fighting in this play. Some of it was funny. I don't think I want to see it again, though.

"Robin Hood" continues July 18, 19, 22, 23, 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Poker Flats Field on the Williams College campus. For more information, click here.

Editor's Note: This is a third installment of The Mom Review, a summer-long series of reviews of family-friendly theater, dance, art exhibits, etc., by iBerkshires Community Editor Rebecca Dravis and her 8-year-old daughter, Noelle, who hope to give you some ideas for summer family fun.

If laughter is the best medicine, I most certainly was drugged Friday night by the time I left the premier of "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)" at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox.

As for Noelle ... well she laughed a lot, too, but I'm not sure she always knew exactly what she was laughing at.

"The Complete Works" features three actors attempting to perform all of Shakespeare’s plays in less than two hours. A feverish version of "Romeo and Juliet" kicks off the evening, and a rousing rendition of "Hamlet" concludes it. The other 35 plays were sandwiched in between in entertaining, amusing and culturally relevant ways that I won't spoil by giving any more details. I seriously have not laughed like that in I don't know how long.

“This is what many scholars over the years have referred to as ‘a romp,” says director Jonathan Croy. “Think of it as a ‘Survey’ of Shakespeare’s work — you remember, like those ‘Survey’ History classes they used to have in high school, where you ‘study’ the entire history of the world in three-and-a-half hours a week and then have to write a thousand word paper on the totality of the social, economic and political forces in 17 countries spread out all across Europe in the '30s and early '40s that then resulted in World War II … this is like that.”

Not really, but the description was interesting enough to appeal to us. Noelle and I decided to go see it because it was billed as "something special for audiences of all ages." There is, however, the following warning in the program: "Although there is nothing in this play that would offend children, the cast wanted to forewarn parents that strong language, like 'varlet,' 'calumnious,' 'rabbit-sucker' and 'fart' will be in use."

I'm not sure after seeing it I would agree that there is nothing that would offend children. I think it's more likely that children around Noelle's age are not going to get any of the offensive jokes (and I doubt children any younger than her would sit through it, as it runs more than two hours, albeit with one 15-minute intermission).

Don't get me wrong: It's clearly less offensive than most of what children see on television and in the movies. Most of the inappropriate jokes were sexual in nature, and as I said, they went right over Noelle's soon-to-be-third-grade head, and appeared to be going over the heads of the handful of other kids in the audience. 

Teenagers and precocious pre-tweens, however, will get the jokes, so it's up to you to decide your comfort level. If you don't mind a little bit of raunchiness (which shouldn't really come as a surprise with Shakespeare, anyway), your kids might actually learn to appreciate The Bard. 

Their high school English teachers will thank you.

Now for Noelle:  It was hysterical. I really liked the end, where they did the fast version and backward version of "Hamlet." That was so cool. I didn't quite understand some of it, mostly "Hamlet." It didn't seem like they were following a script, which was a good thing. It seemed more natural. I learned that Shakespeare has a lot of puking. Of course I would go see it again.

"The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)" runs in the Tina Packer Playhouse through Aug. 24. For tickets and information visit www.shakespeare.org or call 413-637-3353.

Editor's Note: This is a second installment of The Mom Review, a summerlong series of reviews of family-friendly theater, dance, art exhibits, etc., by iBerkshires Community Editor Rebecca Dravis and her 8-year-old daughter, Noelle, who hope to give you some ideas for summer family fun.

I've never seen two-dozen young children sit so quietly for 45 minutes.

That's one takeaway from the magical show "Bleu!" that Noelle and I went to see at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, where it is playing for this weekend only.

"Bleu!" is presented by the Italian theater company Compagnia TPO, whose website bills itself as "interactive theater for children." At the opening show on Wednesday, July 2, it was indeed theater in that it clearly told a story. But unlike the theatrical stories most children are used to hearing, this one was told through music and movement, not words.

"Bleu!" narrates the meeting of two characters: a sailor and a magical and mysterious being who is a sea nymph. From the company's website: "It all starts when "She" drops a pearl into the sea so that "He" can find it. The sailor will have to undertake an adventurous journey, plowing the sea waters and diving to the lowest abysses, transforming the story into an active discovery and search for knowledge."

But here's the cool part: The stage is a large "dance carpet" onto which images are projected. Noelle was familiar with the concept of the electronic, interactive dance floor from visiting a mall in New Jersey with a similar feature, but I have never seen one around the Berkshires. So she was eager to try this one out out — and she got her wish. For "Bleu!" is highly interactive, with the two dancers inviting children on stage in small groups throughout the show to interact with themselves and the floor.

And here's the even cooler part: With the exception of a few whispers between the dancers and the children — who ranged in age from around 4 or 5 to 8 or 9 years old — the children were able to figure it out. Intuitively, Noelle knew that when the star she was standing on started to move, she should chase it around. The children who rode in the "boat" seemed to know to line up and "ride" it around.

I'm not a child psychologist or a teacher, who may witness children's amazing fearlessness and intuition on a more regular basis. I'm just a mom who thought it was really neat that these kids participated in the show in a fun and meaningful way with little guidance from a grownup. I repeat: There was little guidance from a grownup. What a novel idea, in this helicopter-parenting age we live in!

From a technical perspective, the set was beautiful, the music lovely, the dancers talented. I was riveted for the entire 45 minutes, despite being soaked from dashing to the Doris Duke Theatre in a downpour and thunderstorm. Or maybe it was BECAUSE I was soaked: I felt right at home in the underwater setting. I bet adults and kids over the age of 4 or 5 will feel the same way, even on a sunny day.

Now for Noelle: The stage was really cool, the way you stepped on stuff and it moved. I liked how they beamed the light on the gauzy curtains on the stage and you could see shapes, like bubbles. The music really went with the show. I liked how the dancers were so flexible and rolled around. It was like rhythmic gymnastics. I would go see it again.

"Bleu!" continues Thursday and Friday, July 3 and 4, at 4:14 and 8:15 p.m.; Saturday, July 5, at 11:15 a.m. and 3:15 and 8:15 p.m.; and Sunday at 11:15 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. General admission tickets for adults are $28 with youth tickets $10. For more information, visit jacobspillow.org.