A Cafe Encounter... that is Much Ado About Nothing

Well I've finally made it back to the land of the living, just in time for it to get HOT. Rainy, cloudy London is no more, this is sweat-until-you-die London (at least for the moment. I actually hear it should rain again tomorrow).

I actually felt better starting yesterday, but decided to play it relatively easy and NOT go to the all-day club that my flatmates checked out (they call it "Church." Get it? Because it's on Sunday? Yeah). Instead, two others and I went to the Royal Albert Hall (built by Queen Victoria's husband, Albert) and saw the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The whole thing was beautiful, from the hall to the music, and to top it all off they did Carmina Burana which is a personal favorite of mine since we sang parts of it at Nueva. Seriously, the whole thing was incredibly gorgeous. It was just what I needed to experience some London culture while still taking it pretty easy (and also not dying in the heat, which had just begun).

We went to dinner at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, which we discovered is American because they say fries instead of chips, and spent the night finishing Much Ado About Nothing since the performance was today.

This morning instead of class we headed down to the Globe, where we got a tour and a semi-acting lesson from an actor. It was fairly interesting, although the tour was only of the stage, which we'd seen, and most of the facts we'd already learned from Dobby (that's our professor. He forbids us to call him anything other than Dobby). The acting was pretty hysterical, though, mostly watching our friends be subject to his humorously harsh stage directions.

After that, Dobby took us on a short Shakespeare walking tour, including the site of the original Globe, the Rose which was its rival theatre, and Southwark chapel that has Shakespeare's brother's grave (I took a picture before I knew we weren't allowed to). When the tour was finished Dobby took seven of us out to lunch to discuss a couple scenes in Much Ado that we're going to act out in class on Wednesday.

This is where it all got a little weird. Maybe I'm overreacting from this whole thing, but I'll let you be the judge. Here are the facts. We went to this little cafe that was attached to the Globe Education Center or something like that. Basically it's owned by the Globe. So we go in and it's essentially empty, there's one older bald man eating his food, we order our food and sit down, and these 4 men come in after, order, and sit. We start talking about Much Ado. We're going on for a bit and then I look over and the man who'd been sitting there when we walked in is kind of glaring at us, and I see him mouth "shut the f**k up." Like really angrily. So suffice it to say I was sort of taken aback. A few moments later, I notice that the four men at the table next to us are particularly amused by our conversation (it wasn't exactly hard to tell what we were talking about). They keep glancing over and laughing and muttering about "Hey that table's discussing Much Ado." So now I'm feeling really uncomfortable. Then, to top it all off, this very attractive young man with a beard (he's attractive despite the beard, not because of it, okay) comes in and is immediately called over by the other four. One older guy goes "Hey, see that table there, they're doing Much Ado." So I suddenly realize: they're the actors. They're probably having lunch before they do some dress rehearsal or fitting or something, and we're just being terribly amusing to them by going on about the play they'll be performing in only a few hours time.

So, okay. This is cool, right? Except I was so thrown off by the one guy telling us to eff off (he wasn't an actor, by the way, just some guy) and not totally knowing how to react by these guys looking at us and laughing while we discuss their play was just a little too much. I left feeling very embarrassed and hoping that I was wrong, or that maybe they were the actors for a different play, or something. I just couldn't shake the feeling that that guy with the beard was way too handsome to have a beard like that if he wasn't... a Shakespearean actor. Or Brian Wilson.

Anyway, for whatever reason, this encounter stayed with me all day, kind of in a negative way. After lunch we went to the Clink Museum, which was this tiny little thing all about medieval torture and prisons and such. The worst we saw was this big metal boot that they stick your foot in and pour hot oil into it, then make you sit there until your foot literally falls off. Sickening. Afterwards we walked down the Thames to the Tower Bridge and took photos and such (I will be better with the photos, I've just been too lazy to upload them). We walked past City Hall which is this very modern building that looks a bit like an egg that's been sliced and then tilted out in pieces--hard to describe. Then we walked all the way back past the Globe and to this little pub that is supposed to let you drink your pint on the steps leading to the river, right on the shore, but the tide had gone out so it was all rocks, and all we wanted was water to drink anyway (like I said, SO hot out).

We got dinner and finally ran into 2 girls who said everyone was at Starbucks writing in their journals (we have to keep one for the class) and finishing the play, so we headed over there and spent some time before the show started. We also hit up the Globe gift shop, which had my favorite Hamlet quote that I had all but forgotten but now remember: "Doubt thou the stars are fire/ Doubt that the sun doth move/ Doubt truth to be a liar/ But never doubt I love" (I die).

Finally, it was show time, and I found myself nervous, for no good reason whatsoever. I was just really hoping I was wrong and the guys at the cafe were not actors, just randoms who like to laugh at people reading Shakespeare.

Of course, who shows up right on stage, hottie with a beard, playing Claudio, one of the two male leads. I almost died. I kept myself together for the most part, though, and promptly fell in love with him throughout the course of the play, although the whole cafe thing was still in the back of my mind (stupid). The man playing the Friar was the one who was particularly amused by us.

Anyway, the play was great, so funny, a lot more laugh-out-loud moments than All's Well (largely because it's just a funnier play). The guy who played Geoffrey on "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" was in it! We were all highly amused. I will not go into a plot synopsis like I did for All's Well, but of course in the end everything was well and everyone was happy, this time ending in a sort of double wedding and, of course, a jig. I now wonder if I go back to that cafe on the morning of a performance, if I will be able to re-meet Claudio and set the record straight. Of course, I realize how ironic all this is given the title "Much Ado About Nothing," which I believe is exactly what happened in my head over the course of the day.

I'm a little sad to be done with comedies, especially because we've got some heavy ones coming up. Doctor Faustus, which it appears that nobody has a clue what it's about (not even Dobby) but is very supernatural and all the posters have fire and stuff, then Richard III and Hamlet (my love). Big hitters. It'll all be good though.

It is so wonderful to be back :)

-Charlotte