Shakespeare-ing it

We arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon on Sunday, and I'm staying at a lovely little B&B just outside the main part of town. The town isn't that big, and you can walk from one end of it to the other in under 20 minutes really.

Sorry that it's taken me so long to update--my computer has been having some issues (the "blue screen of death" as the mac commercials say), but I think I've at least partially solved them for the moment.

Everything--EVERYTHING--here is about Shakespeare. Seriously, if you didn't love him you'd go crazy in this town. The names of cafes (As You Like It), B&Bs (Twelfth Night; Cymbeline), toy stores (Much Ado About Toys), and liquor stores (Bottom's Up) bombard you with references to Shakespeare's work. This is of course only natural, since Shakespeare is the only big thing to hit here in the past 600 years, and he makes a great tourist attraction, hence the proliferation of "authentic Shakespeare historical sites," like the one-time home of his grand-niece's husband's parents and their dog named Bill. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but really it's a little absurd here, with everyone trying to profit on this literary legacy.

At any rate, I'm enjoying this part of the trip much more than I'd expected to, considering that I'm not the biggest fan of Shakespeare. I think I'd never really considered that there are alternate ways to perform Shakespeare--that you don't necessarily have to do the show precisely as it is written, just as a pure play. However, I'm quite enjoying seeing these other interpretations of it, and the different aspects of the plays that they bring out.

Monday night we saw Romeo & Juliet, which is of course the most overdone Shakespeare show. It's also probably my least favorite Shakespeare play, so you can imagine how excited I was going into it. At any rate, I quite enjoyed it. They framed the story as two feuding families who are getting together to perform the play, which I liked because it put the focus more on the tension between the families, the bigger issues at stake, rather than the supposed romance between the 13 year old Juliet and the flighty wimpy Romeo. Instead of sword fights, the actors did a sort of tap-flamenco dance hybrid and swung quarterstaffs around, which sounds weird but was actually quite intriguing. They also had a very clever balcony scene involving a ladder tower with Juliet in a precarious position at the top. Some thought this allowed too much contact between the two lovers, but I really enjoyed the effect of it all. So at any rate, the show impressed me, and that is impressive.

Tuesday morning we discussed the play and Sorcha Cusack, who played a delightful Nurse in R&J, visited our class and talked about the production with us. She was refreshingly honest about facets she objected to (one fine example: a little girl wearing bunny ears which had no discernible purpose in the play) and the process they went through with the show. Quite fascinating.

Tuesday night we saw an extremely, er, “creative” version of Cymbeline, which used virtually none of Shakespeare’s language, but did involve music, graffiti, and a drag queen! I actually really enjoyed it. The people who went in expecting to see Shakespeare’s Cymbeline were understandably disappointed, but Cymbeline really isn’t one of my favorite plays so I had no great expectations going in.

Wednesday evening’s performance of The Tempest was definitely my favorite Stratford moment thus far, and not only because PATRICK STEWART was playing Prospero. Did you hear that? I SAW PATRICK STEWART LIVE IN A ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY PRODUCTION!!!!!!!!!!! No really you have no idea how amazing that was.

However, I also really loved the concept. They set it in the arctic, instead of the traditional tropical island, and the entire production was very dark, somber, and ethereal. Nothing like the show we did at Furman. To me there isn’t even a comparison between the two. This show focused intently on the relationship between Prospero and Ariel, and made that relationship very tense, with a tangible power struggle in the air. Very cold, desolate—it was a concept that completely pulled me into the story in a way a more outwardly energetic show would not.

The two things I truly despised about the show were a) the storm scene, or lack thereof, and b) the entire portrayal of Miranda. The storm scene consisted of a big radio projection with a cutout in one of the speakers showing a tiny space supposedly inside the ship, where the actors delivered their lines without the slightest bit of frenzy or confusion, and were jolted by waves at completely different times. Obviously a complete lack of direction in that scene, and it turned out to be a potentially interesting idea that did not work at all. Regarding Miranda, I think the idea was to show how growing up without socialization can make you awkward, but she just turned out completely stiff and weird. The worst part was that she was not only awkward around the strangers, but around her own father, who is the only person she has known for her entire life, so that bit seemed inappropriate to me.

Some of our group despised the show and made it very clear that they thought it was hideous. I think these were also the people who secretly wanted to see a reflection of our own production, so I can see why the idea was a problem for them. However today’s discussion was not the bloodbath I was anticipating, which gives me hope.

Speaking of bloodbaths, tonight’s by-the-book production of Julius Caesar involved the murderers literally bathing in Caesar’s blood, which is truly disgusting when you’re sitting in the third row and somewhat concerned that you will be stained red by theatre blood. I did not enjoy tonight’s production nearly as much as the others, although the actor playing Mark Antony was brilliant. This show was exactly what you would expect when you read the play, except with much less of a set and visual interest (anyone who knows me will understand that the lack of visual interest is a problem). I would much rather see a play taken in a new direction that I had not considered and explore what that interpretation brings out, but this show offered no such intrigue for me. Not to say that it was a bad show at all—I found the murder scene most compelling—but it was not my cup of tea (which by the way LaurenFrances I have been drinking an awful lot of).

Well, it is 12:40 am here so I am going to go to bed. No play tomorrow, hooray for a break! I will have to do laundry tomorrow afternoon though, which I am not looking forward to—it’s quite expensive and the washers are tiny.

Cheers from the girl with piles of dirty clothes because England is much too exciting to waste time in a laundromat!

this is it...

Well, I had typed up a really long detailed entry, but then somehow made it all go away, because I am just special like that. So here we go again, though it might not be as long and detailed as before...

Today (in Bath still) we left the hotel and went to the Bath Abbey, where two people gave their reports (we have to give reports on the topics our papers were on), and then we toured the Authentic Roman Baths, where the Romans tried to heal themselves in the hot mineral springs and thus gave the town its name. We then traipsed to a Palladian architecture site (not all that exciting), where the indomitable Laura-Ann gave the final report of tour (always very exciting)!

After that--prepare to be jealous--Chandler, Hailey and I ate at.....(drumroll please)........ the CADBURY COCOAHOUSE!!!!!!!! The only reason they even have real food is so that people like us won't feel like complete bums because, hey, even though I drank a Classic Chocolate Chiller (60% pure cocoa) and had a slice of Chocolate Tart (read: pie) with vanilla ice cream, I got some food food too, so it's okay! But really, if you're ever in Bath, you must go.

Now a couple more of you will be jealous, and a couple of you won't even care about where we went next, which was the Jane Austen Centre, located in a house where JANE AUSTEN ACTUALLY LIVED AND WROTE! Very exciting. It had an exhibit, tea room, and store, which I admirably resisted buying a 35-pound glicee print of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. It took a lot of willpower. If I did buy it though, I would have had to hang it over my bed in a fit of girliness so I could look at while I go to sleep. Of course I'm sure Colin doesn't much appreciate their selling his portrait to potential stalkers like myself, but so goes life.

I did buy a Making of Pride & Prejudice (the BBC miniseries) book for myself, which is wonderful, and a copy of Persuasion (set partially in Bath), which I hope to get to read a little tonight after I finish typing this for the second time, and in spite of the fact that I really should be reading our assigned London novels.

Here is a picture of me with the Jane Austen statue outside the Centre:

Meanwhile, trying to pack up all the books I've bought should be an entertaining dilemma tonight. It's gotten fairly out-of-control, although most of them are from Ireland, and I feel like I'm really less likely to buy English-ish books than Irish books, because Ireland is the homeland baby!

It's been ridiculously hot here again today. Thank goodness I bought 3 Oxford t-shirts! (This is me justifying my buying 3 Oxford t-shirts due to the fact that I couldn't choose among them.) I am currently wearing the one that says "Oxford Football" and has a picture of a soccer ball on it, because of course they do call soccer 'football.'

Also in Oxford (Thursday night) we saw Peter Hall's production of Waiting for Godot, which was interesting, though I don't recommend it for an exciting night out. After the show we went to the Eagle and the Child, the pub where C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and all their literary-minded friends used to hang around. That was pretty amazing.

Side note: I gave my report on Oxford and the Medieval University System on Thursday, and it went splendidly.

Tomorrow we leave at 10:00 am for Stratford-upon-Avon! This means that tonight all the Stratfordians are gloating over the Pilgrims, who have to be ready to go at 5:20 am. Over the next two weeks, while the Pilgrims are hungry, sleepy, and 3 days without a shower, I will be laughing it up with Patrick Stewart at the Dirty Duck and enjoying a charming B&B residence. Now seriously, which sounds better to you?

So now I intend to go pack (maybe) and read (much more likely), but before I go, here are a few pictures:







This is the Bath Abbey, as seen from the South-West side.

















A really beautiful figure inside Yorkminster


















Me conquering Hadrian's Wall!















Inside the old, delapidated Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh. I found it very inspiring and took a massive amount of pictures here.

from Bath, on the next to last day of Tour

Well, another speeding bus hit our speeding bus today. It was bound to happen. And by "hit," I mean "the side mirror of the other bus scraped against the window of our bus," but it did cause no small amount of screams from the girls next to the affected window.

We did at any rate successfully arrive at our final "on tour" destination: Bath, England. At a Holiday Inn Express, specifically.

The most exciting part of the day was, of course, getting our extra luggage! When we arrived at the airport, we sent one of our suitcases away to meet us later so that we wouldn't have to deal with it all on the tour (genius, since I was struggling a bit as it is), and so now we all have a whole suitcase full of clean clothes! Mine isn't doing me so much good though because it mostly contains sweaters, and in one of God's more humorous moments, it has been rather warm here lately.

At any rate, after Edinburgh we went to York, then Wednesday we went from York to Cambridge, then on Thursday from Cambridge to Oxford, where I bought 3 Oxford University t-shirts! I immediately changed into one because it was hot, yes, hot, in late September England.

I did finally catch the cold that's been going around the bus, but have no fear, it's not too bad. I picked it up Wednesday, so I'm hoping it's not going to get too miserable.

So it is after midnight here and I've got a bit more to do before bed, so I'm going to leave you now. But hopefully tomorrow I will post further and perhaps even add pictures (if the firewall doesn't prevent it)!

Cheers from Bath!

another day in York

Today we went to Yorkminster (ginormous cathedral), Clifford's Tower (involved a lot of steps), and Jorvik, which was a crazy Viking "ride" that had scenes from a Viking village excavated on the site, and a special Viking smell THROUGH THE WHOLE RIDE. No, not kidding, they actually put a disgusting "authentic" scent in the ride area. What is that about?

I've got a lot to do tonight, by which I mean I need to take a shower and pack, so this is short. Tomorrow we go to Cambridge and spend the night in the dorms there, where according to Doug Cummins (professor) we will have private rooms, but we'll have to see about that.

Cheers from the girl who now has a Viking-scented scarf...

York is a REALLY long way from Edinburgh...

So I spent around 3 hours of today's bus ride passed out and sprawled across two seats. And by sprawled I mean curled up in the fetal position. But it was a good nap.

Now we are in York, in the Lady Anne Middleton Hotel, which is nearly heaven compared to the Edinburgh Travelodge on Sketch Street. We have hand towels! And a bath mat! And two beds! And free internet!

Edinburgh was wonderful, excluding the hotel, and I really want to go back. It's a lovely place, and at least seemingly safe. And there is a restaurant called Chocolate Soup, which is basically AMAZING! The pay phone booths smell really bad. I know because I stood in one for quite a while talking to my parents, since the hotel DID NOT HAVE PHONES!!! But really, it was a good 3 days.

Today we stopped in Durham to see the Cathedral there, which was very very grand. I think it's fascinating that people were passionate enough to carry out such a project, but I wonder if maybe they misunderstood the point of it all, if they were trying to impress God with a man-made structure. But it was lovely to be there.

As a side note, I had fish and chips for lunch again today, which I think makes this my 3rd fish and chips meal in 3 days.

York seems very pleasant, but I don't really know since I haven't seen it in daylight. I hope we get some free time tomorrow.

I was going to post some pictures, but it seems that this internet connection isn't too keen on that idea, so oh well. I may write more tomorrow, or email pics, or something of that nature.

Cheers!

update from Edinburgh

Well we are in Edinburgh now. I am with 2 other girls from our trip at an internet cafe, because the prices for internet at the hotel are downright extortionary (I don't know if that's a word or not).

Yesterday was very very long. We spent most of the day on the bus, as we traveled well over 200 miles from Chester to Edinburgh. Chester was a wonderful little town, and it was definitely the best hotel we'd had thus far. Edinburgh is quite amazing as well, and we got to sleep in for the first time today, which was good because I was quite exhausted, having taken a Dramamine to cure the motion sickness caused by Seamus driving us through winding hilly roads at approximately 112 miles per hour. I didn't do anything last night except eat in a pub called Tass and sit in my room with my eyes glazed over because I was so tired.

Our hotel (a Travelodge) is at a good/bad location, sitting right next to the Royal Mile (the big shopping/eating street here) and also right next to Cowgate (the sketchiest street here, which our professors warned us not to go down--so why did they pick this hotel again?).

We saw Edinburgh castle today, which was too touristy for my taste. There were tons of people there, and they had built a bunch of little shops and cafes into the castle walls. However, this is also where the "Honours" are kept, which include the crown jewels and the Stone of Scone (pronounced "scoon"), so seeing those was neat.

We also visited John Knox's grave today. Know where he's buried? A parking lot. I'm not even kidding. Beneath parking spot number 23 specifically, at the Church of St. Giles. There isn't even a plaque or anything, just a little blank gold-tone square in the pavement. Apparently they weren't all that keen on Knox since they decided to PAVE OVER HIS GRAVE.

We are going to go to dinner soon. I'm really trying to eat in as many pubs as possible, since there is no such thing as pub food at home. We also found a little place called Chocolate Soup, where I think we are going to go for dessert. At any rate, my internet time is about to run out.

For my fellow Furmanites, hope the first week of class went well! And to everyone else, Cheers!

a few pictures, two rather heartbreaking

Today we crossed the Irish Sea, from Dublin to Wales (we had to get up at 5:15 to make sure we got to the ferry on time). We saw a rather intact castle at Conwy. Their city wall is still there too. Also had our first taste of true British weather today--quite rainy and cool. We arrived at Chester, England, without incident, excluding the arch that the bus BARELY fit through. Which we had to go through twice. We went to the Chester Cathedral here today after lunch. It was lovely, but unfortunately most of my pictures didn't turn out because it was rather dark, with a lot of wood, and I didn't want to be disruptive by using flash a lot. But here are some other pictures:

This first picture is a close up of one of the famine memorial statues in Dublin. Ireland had a Great Famine from 1945-1948 because of a potato blight and various government failures. Literally over half the country starved to death, died of disease caused by malnutrition, or immigrated to escape the Famine.


















This is the Yeats statue in Sligo. Very cool. The words on it are bits of his poems.



















This is the cross at the site where several leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed. The executions ended after one particularly brutal execution where the victim was so sick he could not even sit up in a chair--they had to tie him to the chair to be able to shoot him. Public disgust was so great that they ended the executions and made the rest of them life sentences.