12 May
Thursday was a nice, relaxing day. I spent most of the day finishing preparing for my trip to Scotland and getting caught up on homework. That night, we went as a group to see Hamlet performed at the Globe!! I was sooo excited! Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare play, and I couldn't wait to see it performed in the space he meant it to be performed in.
I shouldn't have set my expectations so high. The company performing it was a travelling troupe, which wouldn't be a bad thing if they hadn't treated Hamlet like it was just any other play. Their set was horrible and the costumes and actors were almost always visible to the audience. It's a particular style of theatre that seems to be very popular with travelling Shakespeare troupes and which I absolutely detest.
That wouldn't have been so bad, however, if the actors had known what they were saying. It was clear that they didn't have an understanding of Shakespearean language, especially the actor playing Hamlet. He was so obviously ignorant of what he was talking about that the audience wasn't able to follow along with the story, even if they already knew it. I was very very sad leaving the theatre that night, and really hope I get to see a better version of Hamlet sometime soon.
13 May
A bunch of people in our program went to Brighton on Friday. I almost joined them, but instead decided to stay here in London and visit the museum (with others, of course). I actually ended up waking up too late to join them at the museum, but when they got back we all went over to the Orangery for afternoon tea. The Orangery used to be a greenhouse that was part of Kensington Gardens and used by the residents in the Palace, but now it's a restaurant for....well, tea!
 |
| Walking there (We all dressed up) |
 |
| Peppermint Tea and a Fruit Scone with Clotted Cream |
 |
| Kensington Palace |
14 May
Again, a very slow day. I mostly focused on getting my homework done so I wouldn't have to worry about it while I was travelling the next week. Around noon, however, a few people convinced me to go to the Sherlock Holmes museum with them, and I was glad I did!
The museum was really interesting because of how hands on it was. There was almost nothing that was off limits when it came to touching or examining things. They even had hats and a pipe in multiple places so you could sit on the furniture and take pictures as if you were Sherlock and Watson. I would have been content taking pictures of the others, but they convinced me to get in some myself, so here you are...
 |
| Watson's so much cooler. (Though Patrick does look awesome) |
We were having such a fun time exploring all the different rooms, when we walked up the next flight of stairs to see this:
It's obvious from this picture that this is not a real person, but every time I passed it I did a double take, even when I knew it was there. The little boy scared me so badly that I was on edge as we were exploring the second level, which contained mostly props used in different movies and things (I took pictures, but they're not extremely interesting). I had forgotten that someone said this was also a wax museum, so I wasn't ready for the first thing I would see on the next level:
I have more pictures of this, but it was Watson's arm coming out of the ceiling, holding a lantern over a dead body on the ground. Needless to say I jumped a few feet in the air. Actually entering the room was chilling; wax figures of some of Holmes's most famous cases were crammed together in that room and the one next to it, and they were very realistic to the point that I didn't realize I was the only one in one of the rooms for a while. Here are two of my favorite pictures from it.
It was very creepy, but very cool. I was home just in time to watch the new Doctor Who episode (which was intriguing! haha)
15 May
Not much to say about Sunday. I wasn't feeling well, and I actually threw up a couple times in the night, so I stayed home to rest up. That night, we had four members of the church who are in the theatre community here present a fireside on being LDS and in the arts. It was incredibly inspiring and fun to hear them talk about their experiences.
16 May
This past Monday. We were all so excited to go on our travel week trips, but we did our best to pay attention in class. There was some talk about Hamlet and how horrible it was (though some people really enjoyed it...go figure) and then we moved on to talk about Much Ado About Nothing, which we're seeing on Tuesday this next week.
As a preface to the class, we watched a youtube clip of David Tennant and Catherine Tate bantering that was absolutely hilarious and even more so to Doctor Who fans!! Why, you ask? Because they're playing Beatrice and Benedict in Much Ado! It's not the version we're seeing as a class, but I have a ticket to see it a week from today!! (28 May!) The shows are so sold out that the others who are going and I were not able to get tickets for the same night, but it doesn't matter. 21 pounds to see David Tennant and Catherine Tate play bickering, witty love interests on stage? Um, YES!
Anyway, now that I'm done freaking out, it was a great discussion. We talked a lot about the nature of love and other such topics, and it was interesting to hear everyone's opinions and ideas. I do have to say that I feel slightly bad for the three boys in our class, when there are about thirty girls....
After class, I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) before going to see The Cherry Orchard that night. Carolyn and I wandered around together through the ironwork exhibit as well as the Medieval Britain rooms. There was a ton of interesting things in the museum, and we had a lot of fun together (that seems so long ago....lol).
At 5:30, we met Kiersten and Preston for dinner. I don't even remember the name of the place we went, but it was good food. I had fish and chips for the first time, and I was very satisfied with my meal.
We finished dinner just in time to make it to the show, which was at the National Theatre (the one with the amazing facilities that I was talking about a few posts back.) I mentioned a cool bridge that we passed, and here's a picture of that:
Anyway, The Cherry Orchard is a story about a family in Russia that is deep in debt and struggling with indecision. If Renevskya (I can't remember if that's how you spell it, but that's how you pronounce it) had decided to go ahead and sell her precious cherry orchard that she grew up with, she could have kept her childhood house. As it was, she didn't do anything, so she lost both the orchard and the house, and the trees were cut down to form a subdivision.
I will be the first to admit that I was most definitely bored and had to struggle to stay awake, but it was an excellent performance of such a boring play. The leading character (Renevskya...?) was played by Zoe Wanamaker, who is an excellent actress. You'd recognize her from Harry Potter, where she played Madame Hooch, or (if you're like me) from Doctor Who when she played Cassandra. (Yes, I know you only see her as Cassandra twice, but you hear her voice nonetheless) She's done quite a bit of voice work as well, and her voice is interestingly enough in many video games. Maybe it's because her voice is very interesting to listen to.
There were other recognizable actresses in the performance as well, especially if you're a Jane Austen fan. Renevskya has two daughters, Anya and Varia, who are in my opinion more interesting characters than their mother. Anya was played by Charity Wakefield, who plays Marianne in the BBC miniseries version of Sense and Sensibility (I know, Mom!) and Varia was played by Claudie Blakley, who plays Charlotte Lucas in the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice. Yeah, I know you're all jealous.
All right, so there's those five days!! I'm on my way to being caught up! I'll make a new post for my travel week to Scotland. I'm not sure if I'm going to combine the days or do them individually, but we'll see!
yes I am jealouse! You know I would love to see botht hose actresses! Can't wait to hear about Scotland! Glad you're back safe!
ReplyDelete