But they might once they see the production of Measure for Measure currently playing at Sanborn-Skyline Park in Saratoga.

This year, Saratoga's very own Shady Shakespeare Theatre Company is pushing the boundaries of Shakespearean theater with its summer lineup, aptly themed "Shakespeare in Lust."

Now, SSTC doesn't want the public to get the wrong idea. Although there are passionate scenes in many of the famous playwright's works, this year's performances aren't filled with a lot of racy sex--that's not what the group means by "Shakespeare in Lust," says Sara Betts, founding member and artistic director. She explains that, rather, the "lust" part refers to all manner of things that humans crave.

"[We're exploring], what is this thing, the human spirit? [This year's theme, 'lust,' is] not based solely on sexual urges, but it also includes power, lust for money, and anything else humans desire," she says. "This year we are taking a particular look at lust, when someone wants something more than anything else and will do anything to get it. Lust is something which is not discussed much in 'polite' society, and yet is something that is part of the common human experience."

Therefore, Betts says, this year, SSTC has decided to present two different Shakespearean works it feels show "the many different sides of lust"-- Measure for Measure and The Merry Wives of Windsor . Both productions have been brought into a modern time period--and the shows' directors chose some pretty interesting ones, at that.

Standing alone, Measure for Measure is a rather dark play that deals with power struggles, the separation of church and state, and premarital sex. So, director Jeff Bengford, who also works with the drama department at Westmont High School, decided to run with those themes and present the play during the sexual revolution--"the 1970s Times Square of Midnight Cowboy and Taxi Driver , when the entire area seemed to be smoked in the ashes of Hell, spewing out of the manholes. A Times Square dominated by peep shows, porn shops, and the people that prowled the polluted streets," he explains.

This is where the Afros, leopard-print mini-skirts and peace signs come in.

"I was trying to think of a time period that the audience could quickly identify with, known for its promiscuity and sauciness. It was an age when promiscuity and sex kind of ran rampant; it was pre-AIDS, before that scare."

During a performance of Measure for Measure in the festival's second weekend, audiences at first seemed a bit taken aback when the first scene opened and several characters, portraying prostitutes, poured out into a makeshift Times Square to party and peddle their "wares." They were dressed in vibrant '70s costumes, and the sounds of disco filled the night air. However, within minutes, the actors had the audience laughing with their slapstick comedy and cleverly delivered lines, kept in Shakespeare's true tongue.

"It's really well-played, and the music really brings it all together," Katherine Reynolds, of Sunnyvale, said during intermission. "I love the set, and the costumes are cute, too."

Her friend Amy Cornelison, also of Sunnyvale, enjoyed the modern interpretation. "I think it's a good approach; [this play] is very translatable," she said. "It makes it more accessible."

Ann Zerega and her husband, Garth Cummings, of San Jose also enjoyed the '70s spin, and said they had been looking forward to seeing a production of this, one of Shakespeare's lesser-known works.

"I like the fact that they're doing it non-traditionally," Zerega said. "Shakespeare is always timely. I've seen [modern interpretations] done before, and I've always enjoyed it." Zerega said she also enjoyed SSTC's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last year.

"I wasn't familiar with Measure for Measure , so I wanted to see it," Cummings said. "I love how these stories remind you of how we're still the same people we were centuries ago."

Zerega and Cummings say they used to love to go see Shakespeare in the Park in Chicago, their previous home. Therefore, they were happy to find a similar festival when they moved to the Bay Area, and think Sanborn-Skyline Park is the perfect venue for it.

Friends Deni Green and Maureen Ford of Saratoga couldn't agree more.

"It's really cute, it's charming," Green says. "The setting is just wonderful, being in the fresh air with a blanket to keep you warm."

Green says she heard about SSTC from her neighbor and friend, Ford, who read about it in the Saratoga News a few years ago and thought it sounded like a fun experience.

"I come to this every year [now]," Ford says.

Green said she appreciates how SSTC goes out of its way to make the performances free. Living on a single income, she says it makes it much easier for her, although she says she donates something when the donation basket is passed around. What's better--Green was the winner of the evening's raffle, and won a pack of Shakespearean playing cards.

The Merry Wives of Windsor offers up action of a much different kind. Anyone who is a big fan of 1950s sitcoms such as I Love Lucy will get a kick out of director Dinna Myers' modern spin. Myers says when she read Merry Wives for the first time, she actually thought she had mistakenly picked up the script from just such a show--the plot seemed as though Shakespeare had reached hundreds of years into the future and snatched it right off the TV.

"The entire play is nothing if not a direct filching of every good situation comedy of the 1950s, a.k.a. The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy , Father Knows Best , Leave it to Beaver ..." says Myers, a founding member and the managing director of SSTC.

Audiences seem to be getting a good laugh out of Merry Wives .

"It's fantastic," Rhee Bevere of Campbell says. "The way they brought it into the '50s and made it just like a sitcom, it's so inspired. It's just hysterical. This company does very well with new works."

Betts says members of SSTC couldn't be happier that they have, at last, expanded their season to include two productions instead of the single one they did each of the previous six seasons. This marks the debut of SSTC as a repertory theater company--it finally has the core group of actors it has always wanted. It is hoped this group will remain with the company for years and perform in the cast of every show. Betts says the SSTC staff was channeling Shakespeare himself when they thought up that idea.

"Our hopes for doing that are to hopefully run our group much like Shakespeare ran his troupe; he had a group of dedicated artists. Someone might play Hamlet one night, and play a spear-thrower the next night," Betts said earlier this year when this summer's lineup was announced. "This is very similar to how Shakespeare performed in his time, when he had one group of artists that knew the repertoire, and would say 'Tonight we're going to do this, and tomorrow we're going to do this.'"

SSTC still holds auditions for additional actors it needs to fill the casts of each show. Caitlyn Louchard, who plays the nun Isabella in Measure for Measure and the young boy Rugby in Merry Wives , says her experience with SSTC has been an enjoyable one, and the core actors in the artistic ensemble made her feel just like one of the gang.

"Everyone is very excited [to be doing what they're doing], it's nice to work with people who are so inspired by Shakespeare. At the same time, it's friendly and relaxed. I like it. It very much feels like a family," she says. "I was new, and I felt very welcome."

Louchard graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, where she was active in the theater department and got to dabble in a little Shakespeare--she played the apothecary in Romeo and Juliet and Titania in Midsummer Night's Dream . She says she enjoys SSTC's new repertory format.

"One night I play Isabella, and the next night I play this nervous little boy in Merry Wives . It's nice to go back and forth and get a break from the intense drama of Measure for Measure, and do something really wacky," she says.

Louchard says bringing her character Isabella in Measure for Measure into modern times was a challenge. Isabella's brother is sentenced to death for impregnating his girlfriend out of wedlock, and, in order to save his life, Angelo, the temporary ruler of the city, asks her for a bribe--her virginity.

"Honor is not a value that we prize as highly as we used to, so Isabella's refusal to give up her chastity is not as easy to understand in the 1970s setting [I think], so I had to fight hard to justify her actions and make her as believable as possible. It was a welcome challenge, very much so," she explains. "It was really great fun, to sort of pick apart the character and the text and bring her as close as I could, to really try and find her humanity."

Louchard says she doesn't always think that modern interpretations of Shakespeare can be pulled off, but SSTC seems able to rise to the challenge.

"I'm willing to do whatever works, and if it can be really justified with the text, I don't mind it," she says. "I think it works [with SSTC's interpretation of these two plays]."

Well, there's just one weekend left to get out there and judge for yourself.

Remaining performances of 'Measure for Measure' are Sept. 16 and 17, and 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' performs for the last time on Sept. 18. These free performances begin at 7 p.m. at Sanborn-Skyline Park, 16055 Sanborn Road in Saratoga. The park charges $5 per vehicle for parking. Visit www.shadyshakes.org.