Jamie Bennett, the youngest of my five children, is 11 years old, which is just a year older than I was when I attended the Utah Shakespeare Festival for the first time.

Before going, I saw Shakespeare as something akin to broccoli — good for you, sure, but not something you would want to consume voluntarily. I quickly changed my mind after that first visit, yet I’ve found that many people, both old and young, still hold to my initial opinion, which is why I think Jamie’s perspective on this year’s festival might be helpful to those who aren’t planning on making the trip to Cedar City.

This is Jamie’s third year seeing the plays, so he’s a much more seasoned prepubescent Shakespeare buff than I was. He’s also seeing shows in the USF’s spectacular new $40 million, state-of-the-art theater complex, which opened this summer, and, unlike back in the day, the current offerings include three plays outside the Shakespeare canon.

So here’s my exclusive, in-depth interview with first-time theater critic Jamie Bennett, who has taken time away from slam-dunking Nerf balls into the mini basketball hoop in our basement to speak with me today.

Me: Hello, Jamie. Thank you for fitting me into your busy schedule.

Jamie: (Laughs) You’re welcome.

Me: I understand you saw five plays at the Utah Shakespeare Festival this year.

Jamie: Yes, I did!

Me: Overall, what did you think?

Jamie: I liked most of the plays. Part of “Henry V” was boring for me.

Me: Really? I thought it was very exciting, especially when they hanged a person right on the stage.

Jamie: That scared me. I did not like that. I liked the end when they were battling. I liked a lot of the parts. It was just some of the parts bored me.

Me: What was your favorite play?

Jamie: Ummm … that’s hard. I liked a lot of them. I liked “Three Musketeers”; I liked “Mary Poppins.” I guess “Mary Poppins” was my favorite.

Me: Why is that?

Jamie: All the singing, and it was funny, and it was just fun.

Me: What did you like about “The Three Musketeers?”

Jamie: I liked all the sword fighting, and there were a ton of funny jokes. But, yeah, I really liked the sword fighting.

Me: My favorite play this year was “Much Ado About Nothing.” What did you think of that one?

Jamie: I liked it for the most part. Some parts just bored me.

Me: Which parts did you like?

Jamie: I liked the parts where they were pretending they couldn’t see Beatrice and Benedick, and they talked about how Benedick loved Beatrice, and Beatrice loved Benedick. That part was really funny.

Me: What about “The Cocoanuts?”

Jamie: (Laughs) It was funny. Really funny. Some jokes I didn’t get, but it was really funny for me.

Me: You told me in Cedar City that “The Cocoanuts” was your favorite.

Jamie: I did before I saw “Mary Poppins” and “Three Musketeers.”

Me: So you’re fickle.

Jamie: What does that mean?

Me: It means you change your mind.

Jamie: (Nods) Yep!

Me: What would you tell your friends who say, “I don’t want to watch Shakespeare”?

Jamie: This year was really funny. None of the plays were really sad. If you want to laugh, you should come this year. And the pool in the hotel was nice. I really liked the restaurant by the hotel we went to on the very first day.

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So there you have it. Festival organizers, feel free to use pull quotes from this interview in your advertising materials. I recommend: “If you want to laugh, you should come this year.”

Although you can’t go wrong with “the pool in the hotel was nice.”

Jim Bennett is a recovering actor, theater producer and politico, and he writes about pop culture and politics at his blog, stallioncornell.com.