Bring a picnic and a blanket, friends and family to Fall City Park this Friday and next for a dose of the bard.

Greenstage’s Shakespeare in the Park company presents “The Tempest,” 7 p.m. today, July 29, at Fall City Park off Neal Road. Next week, “Antony and Cleopatra” is 7 p.m. at the park.

The event is underwritten by the Friends of Fall City Library.

In Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan and self-taught sorcerer lives in banishment on an isolated, magical island. For years, his only company has been his brave young daughter, an airy magical spirit and an enslaved monster. Despite the passage of time, Prospero hungers for revenge and the opportunity comes when a powerful storm shipwrecks his usurping brother, other nobles, and some very colorful characters on the island. Shakespeare’s final and most personal play, “Tempest” is a powerful and often funny story of love, forgiveness and

“Antony and Cleopatra” is Shakespeare’s retelling of one of history’s greatest and most ill fated romances. It is two years after the death of Julius Caesar and a new Caesar, Octavius, is coming into his own. Aging Mark Antony, one of the three rulers of Rome, lives a lavish life of passion and indulgence with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. As Octavius and Rome pressure him to return to his duties, Antony and Cleopatra struggle to keep their own power while sharing a passion that tests their allegiances and begs the question, “What is life without love?”

Learn more about Shakespeare in the Park at http://www.greenstage.org/2011/shakespeareinthepark.