So much Shakespeare.

It's been a busyyy couple of days. We had a triple-header in terms of class-related activities, starting with Richard III on Tuesday, then Hamlet on Wednesday, and our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon on Thursday. So much Shakespeare. So much awesome.

So first, Richard III. This was a really cool experience. Richard was played by Kevin Spacey, and he killed it. I actually didn't know much about the play, despite it apparently being the most-performed Shakespeare play (not sure if I believe that). But then of course I read it and got terribly confused with all the characters and was really just only excited to see Spacey, not really the play as a whole. The whole production was phenomenal, though. It was directed by Sam Mendes. It wasn't at the Globe, where all of our other plays have been, but it was at the Old Vic, which is a far more developed theatre. Kevin Spacey has actually been the Artistic Director there for the last 5 years or so. Maybe longer. Anyway, because it was indoors and they had quite a bit of money to play with, they did some very cool things that the Globe cannot. Every time they had a scene change they played this really intense drum music and projected the name of a character on the wall--which was cool as well as helpful to keep everyone straight. One of my favorite scenes is when Richard and his right-hand man, Buckingham, go out into the square and try to convince the citizens that Richard should be the new king. It's all very deceitful of them, Richard is pretending like he's this very virtuous man who couldn't possibly be king and he doesn't want the burden, and Buckingham gets the crowd all riled up and "forces" him into accepting. The way they did it was to have Richard exit upstage, as if he was going into a church to pray, and then they broadcasted him on this huge screen reacting to Buckingham and to the citizens. They placed what seemed to be the entire supporting cast at various places throughout the audiences, who would cheer or boo or yell at opportune moments. It really felt like we were in the middle of this political rally. Spacey was so great, looking all humble and stuff, when in reality we knew it was all a part of his evil scheme.

The end was pretty awesome too. There's a scene where all of the ghosts who Richard has killed (there are about 10 of them... dude's got a lot of blood on his hands) come onstage and curse him the night before his final battle, while praising his enemy, Richmond. It's cool to read but the way they did it was even better. They seated everyone on this long table, as if they were having a dinner party and the curses were toasts. It was a really unique of doing it. Then at the very end, Richard and Richmond are giving these inspiring monologues to their troops, and they had all of the ghosts come back again and stand downstage with these enormous drums. So Richard and Richmond are yelling and the ghosts are playing and it was incredibly epic, like more so than I think it could have even been in a movie. When Richard finally dies, they attach this hook to his shoes and lift him up so he's dangling upside down, just him and Richmond onstage as Richmond delivers his victorious monologue. It was very creepy and great. It was also really impressive of Spacey, who just had to do this super demanding role for 3 1/2 hours, then scream out a monologue, then have this long swordfight, and then to top it off he has to hang upside down for a good three minutes. It was very cool and surreal to give a standing ovation to a guy whose won 2 Oscars. We went to the stage door and were there for all of 30 seconds when a bodyguard poked his head out and said "If you're waiting for Mr. Spacey or Mr. Mendes, they'll not be out this way tonight." Understandable.

So that was Richard III. The following night we went back to my beloved Globe to see Hamlet. With the stakes being so high given it was our last play, and we'd just seen Kevin Spacey, and it's my favorite Shakespeare, it would have been pretty hard to live up to expectations. So it didn't, really. I mean I liked it and everything. I hate having bad things to say about plays because I know that everyone works so hard and unlike in movies, you can see all that hard work displayed onstage in front of you. This production seemed especially tiring, given that they had only 8 actors playing every role. Hamlet was the only guy who didn't play at least 3 different parts. It's a traveling production, they're only at the Globe for 3 performances, so one of the things they've done to make the show unique is to try to emulate actors back in the day, like before there were real theatres. That's how actors would have done it in the past, with minimal actors so they don't have to pay a bunch of people, and they actually rarely went offstage, doing costume changes right there. Most of their costumes were really ratty too, I think again kind of demonstrating the lack of budget that traveling actor groups used to have. So that was a cool aspect, but it just didn't translate great to the Globe. Sometimes it felt more like it was about the costume changes and the idea of it rather than the play itself. It was still good, though, Hamlet did a great job (although we really could not get over how short he was... a Google search when we got home revealed he was 5' 4". FIVE FOUR.)

Thursday was our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. It was all well and good. We visited 4 different Shakespeare-related houses, including the farm where his grandparents lived and he would visit in the summers (apparently he lived there for a while when the plague broke out in the city), his wife Anne Hathaway's house, his daughter and son-in-law's house, and of course his birthplace. The birthplace was by far the most commercialized, they had this whole Disneyland-esque video introduction thing. They also had his very first Folio, though, which was way cool. They said if he hadn't released that Folio there's a good chance like half of the plays we know today would have been lost. We also visited the church where he and his family are buried, and saw the font that he was baptized in. Stratford as a whole was a cute little city. Practically everything there was Shakespearianized. They had places like Iago Jewellery and Othello Bar... it was great.

Still not entirely sure what the plans are for this evening. We may go to a play or something.

4th of July in the Country That Lost

Yesterday was pretty mellow. I slept in for the first time since I've been here, really, aside from when I was sick. Becka and Nikki (not to be confused with Nicole), my two other roommates, and I planned on going to get Dim Sum in Chinatown, but instead had kind of a lazy morning and then went to the Globe to get tickets for Anne Boleyn and to see if there were any left for Much Ado. Tragedy of tragedies, there weren't. For the entire rest of the time I'm here. I had a very cranky walk back to the Tube.

For dinner we went back to our "local," The Builder's Arms, who had apparently had a very busy weekend given the Wimbledon finals and were almost completely out of food. I had a really overdone burger that was oddly spicy, so I kept piling it with ketchup to counteract the spice. 3/4 of the way through I realize it's the ketchup that's spicy, and I'm just making it worse. To remedy it all a couple of us went over to Nando's and got the best mash in the entire world (the menu actually says "we defy you to find better"), but then they didn't have any dessert so we had to stop for ice cream on the way home. I know this is all terribly fascinating.

Clearly, our American Independence Day isn't a very big deal over here. Seeing as the Brits are the ones that lost the war and everything. We didn't make it a big deal either, really. Class in the morning as usual, and then Dobby took a few of us out to lunch who volunteered to act out scenes from Richard III in class tomorrow (This is the third time I've done it. Just can't stay away). Then since we had yet to actually read the play, my 3 roomies and I hopped the Tube to Northern London, where Nicole's boyfriend lives. We got free burritos because we were American (seriously, they had this 4th of July deal... just had to show our Drivers Licenses) at a Chipotle-like chain and then went to read in a little park. We only got a scene through, though, when Matt (the boyfriend) texted and invited us to a barbecue in a different park, with his co-workers. So we went to that for a while until I started to feel stressed about finishing the play by tomorrow. This is not exactly concise material. We spent the rest of the night reading the play aloud, always an entertaining event. Especially when there are only 3 people to read approximately 30 different characters, half of whom are named Richard, Edward, or Henry.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow, which likely means a) museum or b) sit inside and read plays. We still have one more act of Richard to go before seeing the show tomorrow night, and then we have Hamlet the night following... not a whole lot of time to cram in all that Shakespeare. I'm terribly excited for both, though. Richard III is starring Kevin Spacey and is directed by Sam Mendes, and it's not at the Globe, it's at a theatre in the West End. Very legit. And Hamlet, of course, is my favorite play of all-time (also Romeo & Juliet). Then Thursday is our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. So we've got a very packed week.

Also, I got the wonderful news that just because tickets are sold out for Much Ado doesn't mean that all hope is lost. A lot of times they have returns on the day of the show, and if I call in the morning I can usually get a seat. Or if not in the morning, then I can wait in line like an hour before the show and almost definitely get one. So I have faith! I knew there must be a way.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July--God Bless America!

Adventures Thwarted at Shoreditch, Henley, and the Globe

Public transportation: not my favorite part of cities.

So we've been hearing all trip that the place to go out for locals is Shoreditch. Last night we decided to check it out. I don't need to go into the details, the memory will just make me frustrated and anxious, but we ended up wandering around this neighborhood for hours, trying to find somewhere to go, getting lost, waiting in lines, figuring out maps... it was terrible. By the time 1:00 rolled around we were waiting in line for a bar and just decided to forget it, it wasn't worth it. Plus we knew it would be a fiasco getting home... which it was. Four bus stops, three buses, a long walk and almost two hours later, we made it back to our beloved Manson Place, where I never wanted to leave again. We had spent a grand total of about 45 minutes actually inside a bar and it was 3:30 before we were asleep.

This was a problem, because I had plans this morning to go to the Henley Royal Regatta, which I was very excited about. I got up after 4 hours of sleep, put on my long dress (it must be below the knee to get in... love it), made my way to Paddington station and was ten minutes early to meet Nicole and her boyfriend. After a half hour, though, the train we were supposed to take had left, the one after it had left, and still no sign of them. I was starting to feel very sorry for myself that I was alone in this enormous train station and no cell phone or anything to get ahold of anybody, and then I thought: well, that's okay, I can always go see Much Ado. So I left, hopped the Tube to the London Bridge, and headed over to the Globe feeling really confused about what had just happened but actually pretty okay about the whole thing.

I got coffee and wrote in my journal and embraced the idea of being alone in London, for the first time since I've been here, really. My parade was rained on by the ticket seller, though, who informed me that seats were all sold out for today. I wasn't terribly devastated--I should have known a Saturday matinee in July would sell out quickly--but also wasn't nearly ready to leave yet. So I perused the gift shop, finally buying DVD copies of Romeo & Juliet and Love's Labour's Lost from the 2009 season. Who knows if they'll be any good, but I thought it'd be nice to bring home a piece of the Globe. Also R&J is one of my favorite shows (the other is Hamlet). Also the guy who played Claudio is in both of them. Triple win.

I wrote in my journal again and still couldn't bring myself to leave, so I investigated the sign that said "Exhibition and Tour". I'd already taken the tour with everyone else, so I just paid 5 pounds to check out the exhibition. It was interesting; exactly what I wanted to do if I couldn't actually see the show. They had some costumes from previous performances and a lot of history and it was all quite good.

Finally I thought it might be time to take my leave, so I headed out and started walking towards the Tube. As I was walking, though, I saw the woman who plays Beatrice headed towards the theatre, cell phone and coffee in hand. That makes three times I've seen actors outside of the theatre. Very odd. Anyway, I thought I might sit just a bit longer and see if I could see anyone else, while also writing in my journal for the third time. They closed the gates a few moments later though and I figure it was really finally time to go.

Back at home, my roommates were all terribly relieved to see me. Apparently Nicole's bus had gotten delayed, twice, and they hadn't made it to Paddington until after I'd left. She felt so bad about leaving me that she sent the boys ahead and came all the way back home to get me, assuming I'd come home when I couldn't find them there. I felt awful when I heard that, because I actually thought as I left the station that I should probably go home and check in, but the allure of being on my own and spending time at the Globe was too strong. My other roommates practically had to force Nicole to go, she felt so bad about leaving me. So now of course I feel bad. It's bad all around. I haven't heard from her, but hopefully she met up with the boys and is having a great time. Someday I'll see the Henley, just not today.

Today officially marks the halfway point of my trip. What an amazing time.

Globe Withdrawal

I think Kensington may be the most wonderful place I will ever live. You've got all the perks of the city, like restaurants, and the Tube, and a fun atmosphere, but it doesn't feel like the city, not with its white buildings and trees and clean streets and not a sketchy person in sight. I love it so much. It's getting to the point where getting off the Tube at our station feels like getting home. I can't help it; I'm attached.

I'm also incredibly attached to the Globe theatre, where of course I've been spending a great deal of time and falling increasingly in love with it. I actually miss it when we don't go there at night. Last night, FIE treated us all to tickets to The 39 Steps, the West End play comically based on Hitchcock's movie. It was amusing and all that, but all I could really think about was how much I'd rather be up in the third level at the Globe being treated to some 400-year-old witty banter. And as incredibly excited I am to see Kevin Spacey in Richard III this week, I do wish it was at my beloved Globe (although it will be nice to have seats with cushions--those benches can be brutal). Anyway, we're all finding it terribly ironic that instead of pining for the weekend like normal students, we can't wait until our next class and our next show. I was very close to hopping on the Tube and going to be a groundling (that's what they call the people who stand in the pit-like thing at the Globe, right in front of the stage) for Much Ado tonight, especially when I discovered it's not showing again until next Monday. But I resisted.

I've definitely been getting in my history for the last couple days. Yesterday after class we went to the Tower of London, which was incredibly interesting and also incredibly large. I had no idea there was going to be so much to see. We saw the Crown Jewels, of course, which were amazing and very sparkly. Then we spent the rest of the time exploring the various towers and walking along the wall and checking it all out. There was so much history there. We spent almost three and a half hours, which is by far the longest we've spent anywhere.

Today we continued our sightseeing with a walking tour that took us to Buckingham Palace to the see the Changing of the Guard, then over to Westminster Abbey. How beautiful. It was very fun to stand in the place I had watched at 5 in the morning a few months ago when Will & Kate were married, & of course where good old Colin was crowned in The King's Speech (speaking of The King's Speech: I was told that the woman we saw play Beatrice in Much Ado played Wallis Simpson, the divorced lover/fiancee of Guy Pearce... fun fact). There were also a ton of famous graves, monuments, etc. A lot of famous writers were commemorated there, like Jane Austen and DH Lawrence and Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens and of course the man of the hour, Mr. Shakespeare. It was nice to get the tour, we got a lot of interesting information we wouldn't have otherwise. The whole thing was three hours, though, so we were pretty tired.

I came home and considered going to the Globe and took a nap while most of my flatmates went to Madame Tussaud's. Nicole and I are going to go some other time when I'm not so tired and my camera isn't dead. It's one of the places I'm most excited to go so I want to be prepared.

Have I mentioned I miss the Globe?

Another Day, Another Play

Yes. I like it here.

Doctor Faustus was sort of what I expected, but really not at all. It was dark, but also funny, and frightening, and really kind of moving.

The play tells the story of Doctor Faustus, who sells his soul to Lucifer in exchange for 24 years with one of Lucifer's right-hand men, Mephistopheles. He becomes rich and powerful and does all these terrible things, but ultimately dies when his years are up, being dragged off by demons to torment forever in hell. All the while he briefly contemplates turning back to God, but Mephistopheles and his Bad Angel (you know, like the one on his shoulder) keep telling him he can't, despite his Good Angel's urging to do so.

The play was super elaborate, with these enormous costume pieces and people on stilts and trapdoors and fire leaping out of books and stuff--things I never expected the Globe could manage. It was all wonderful. My favorite was by far Mephistopheles, who could go from restrained to charming to terrifying at the drop of a hat. I really enjoyed his relationship with Faustus; I felt like Mephistopheles really cared about him and would become jealous, almost hurt, when Faustus considered turning back to God.

My favorite part of the play, though, came probably because it was so entirely unexpected. There is a character at the end simply called the Old Man, who enters, has 3 long lines urging Faustus to turn to Heaven, and leaves when Faustus tells him he can't, it's too late. I didn't pay him much mind when I read the play, but seeing it I got an entirely different perspective. When the man entered, I watched him deliver his lines for a moment, and then my eyes turned to Mephistopheles. He was pinned against the pillar in complete and total terror, almost in tears, struck completely useless by the presence of the Old Man. And I realized: he was God, coming to make one final plea to Faustus to realize his errors and come home. Unlike Mephistopheles, who came in in a cloud of smoke with a red cape, conjuring dancing demons to prove himself, the Old Man came in with nothing, unassuming as always, and simply asked. I cried a little. Seeing Mephistopheles, who was so calm and in control the entire play, suddenly reduced to this frightened child, was a really beautiful moment. And the fact that Faustus rejected him once again finally sealed his fate--we watched seconds later as demons literally carried him offstage into smoky Hell.

Anyway, that was my favorite part. It was kind of when I realized the severity of the material. And I'm finding it very difficult to dislike anything that I see at the Globe--what a problem to have.

To recap the rest of my day, we went to the London Eye before the show, which was a great view of the city but not much else. The plan was the Tower of London, but our professor assigned us a paper on Much Ado due tomorrow so we decided we needed the extra time to work on it before the show. We'll probably go to tomorrow, see the Crown Jewels and all that.

It's a late night in the flat. What with Faustus going a bit longer than the rest of the shows we've seen (it was 3 hours) and only an hour or two to work on our paper this afternoon, we're all cramming a bit. But hey, any excuse to write about my beloved Claudio, I'm happy.

Cheerio!

-Charlotte

Thunder and Fire and Faustus

Yesterday I experienced my first-ever London thunderstorm. Boy this place has weird weather. I went from sweating my eyes out one day to staying indoors amidst torrential downpour the next. Anyway, we used it as prompting to sit in our living room and read Doctor Faustus, our next play, which we are seeing tonight. The wonderful thing about it was that Faustus is this really dark show about demons and Lucifer and all that incredibly cheerful stuff, and it literally says things like "Faustus is in his study. Thunder." and thunder would bang in the background, right on cue. So that was fun.

FIE, the Foundation for International Education, is the organization that is looking after us while we're here--it's their housing and such that we're staying in. Anyway, they had a meet and greet type thing last night over at the Imperial College. I was actually genuinely looking forward to getting to know some of the students from other schools--they have people here from like Santa Clara and Ohio State and U of A who live in our building but we never see--but of course we pretty much stuck to ourselves, had our 2 free drinks, and left.

We went over to Piccadilly Circus, which I had yet to go to and was like a much smaller Times Square, with big video screens and stores and such. There were a ton of people around, despite it being fairly late on a Tuesday. We went to this bar/restaurant called O'Neills that had dancing and a live band and three stories. Definitely one of the most fun places I've been since I've been here. We took the night bus home since the Tube stops at 12, which was kind of an experience.

Anyway, we're back off to the Globe tonight to see Doctor Faustus. I'm feeling more than a little sad that we aren't seeing a comedy, but oh well. We're first going to the London Eye, one of the most overpriced touristy things in London, but still something you've got to do while you're here (kind of like Madame Tussauds, which is also on my list). Should be a good time.

Here's hoping the rain stays away. I hear there's lots of fire in Faustus.

-Charlotte

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