The Red Hot Chilli...Pipers?

Alright, let’s see if I can catch you up since I left Stratford! It has been very hectic as we jump to a new city almost every day. First we went to the town of Carlisle. Carlisle was boring and was basically a jumping off point for us to see other things in the area. First we visited Wordsworth’s homes at Dove Cottage and Ryder Hall. I didn’t take any pictures of Dove Cottage because it was pouring down rain, but Ryder hall was very pretty.

Wordsworth bought Dove Cottage because it was in the country and more condusive to his Romantic way of writing. Ryder Hall also had very pretty gardens, but once again, I did not enjoy them because it was so cold and wet. And I was in a skirt and ruined my favorite shoes…

The next day we hiked the third highest mountain in Britain, Helvelyn. It was ridiculous. When we started I was col wearing a t shirt, sweatshirt and north face jacket. Within 5 minutes I had shed down to my t shirt because the walk was SO HARD! The entire way up was an intense incline.

The hike took us about an hour and a half to get up. When we got to the summit it was freezing! Apparently it had been snowing up there earlier that day…I was wearing leggings and shorts. Oops.

So our time at the summit was very short! Then we began the long climb down. It was like walking down very very long, rocky and uneven stairs. It took the same amount of time to get down as to get up. Whew! We felt very accomplished when we were done and we ate a very large dinner at Wetherspoon’s that night!

The next day we began our drive into Scotland! Scotland is my favorite country in the world. That could be an exaggeration, but I do love it. The people are so kind, the land is beautiful and the accents are awesome! Before our arrival in Glasgow, we stopped at Hadrian’s wall. Eh. It was alright, some more ruins and lots of sheep poo everywhere.

So we arrived in Glasgow. It was a pretty neat city with tons of shopping. Unfortunately my suitcase is already busting at the seams! I did manage to squeeze in a pair of adorable boots from Glasgow…Anywho, we spent the first afternoon there just walking around the city and getting our bearings. We ate at this place called campus that was trying to hard to be American. There were American flags and cowboy boots everywhere. And the walls were covered with pennants from American colleges. Crazy place!

The next morning we took a bus tour of Glasgow. I really enjoy those because I get a feel for the entire city, not just the areas that are close enough for me to get to by foot. Things I learned: a) St. Mungo lived here, as in St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries b) Glasgow used to be a very polluted city and they don’t clean their buildings now because it actually makes them grow a fungus on them… c) sitting on a bus is like a beautiful lullaby that puts me straight to sleep. We took a pitstop at the Transport Museum of Glasgow. Actually much more interesting than it sounds. They had the Ford Anglia from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets complete with a model Hedwig in the back!

Me and Alison are all over that stuff. We had the rest of the afternoon to walk around again. The next morning we took a tour of the City Council building and had a briefing on rebuilding Glasgow. Boring. After that we began the trek to….EDINBURGH!

Funny story, almost three years ago I came to the UK for my senior trip and we spent a few days in Edinburgh. When we pulled up to our lodgings I realized that we were staying in the same Travelodge that I stayed in three years ago! Crazy. Edinburgh is truly an awesome city. It is beautiful and there is so much you can do there. The first afternoon we went to St. Giles Cathedral. All these Cathedrals are really starting to run together for me.

That night was the best night of all. We ate at the Elephant House. Sounds pretty ordinary right? Well, actually it's where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter books! There were articles on the wall showing pictures of her in the cafe. Apparently she's been spotted in there recently writing...

Thursday morning we got an early start and tried to hit as many of Edinburgh’s fantastic sights as possible. First we went to Holyrood palace. This is the Queen’s residence in Scotland. It was really cool. Actually I had been there last time I was in Edinburgh but it’s still cool.

They don’t try to make the palace gaudy or anything, it is just presented as it is. We really appreciated that after all of England’s attempts to make everything in your face touristy. Mary Queen of Scots lived there actually along with many other famous monarchs. Best part of the palace—we got a free shortbread crown from the café.

Then we quickly hit the Museum of Childhood since it was free. Not that exciting really so it was a quick breezethrough.

We had more fun playing with all the toys in the gift shop. Then we met up with our group for a trip to the Scottish Parliament. Actually Scotland is far more independent than most people think. They don’t try as hard as Ireland to be independent either. The Scottish don’t seem to fight against England for their independence, they just declare that they are independent. So they have their own parliament among other things.

Then we went to Edinburgh Castle. This was the most ridiculous castle that I have ever seen. It was HUGE. I get easily tired of castles because typically they are all the same…this was definitely an exception. The only downside—five minutes into the tour my stomach decided that it did not like what I had for lunch that day. Too much info? Sorry.

This castle had a lot of stuff in it.—the national war memorial which was quite impressive, St. Margaret’s chapel the oldest building there, the national war museum and the Scottish crown jewels. Also a spectacular view of the city.

There was also a room where Mary Queen of Scots had her son Edward. Cool story about the Scottish jewels. They were locked up for years and actually the author Sir Walter Scott got permission from the reigning monarch to open up the room and bring them out again. Then in World War II they were hidden again in this very castle because of the impending German invasion. Only a handful of people were told one of whom being the Canadian Prime minister. So if all the Scottish people were killed the fate of the Scottish Crown jewels were in the hands of Canada. Hmmm.

There were so many statues of William Wallace, which is awesome! I was really kicking myself for not bringing Braveheart with me (what was I thinking?! I decide to bring Devil Wears Prada over Braveheart. Dumb). So me and Kelsey watched Gladiator instead. Same thing.

The Drunks

On our last night we saw a new Russian play called “The Drunks”. It was another play that was a part of the Revolutions series at the RSC where they commission new playwrights to write these plays to be put on at the RSC. I’m still digesting what exactly the play meant and what I thought of it. It seems like one of those plays where while I’m watching it I have no idea what’s going on but there’s some deeper meaning going on.

The basic premise was that a shell-shocked soldier comes to his home in Russia from some war to find that things are very different. Then three different people start to compete for his loyalty to boost their campaigns for mayor of the city. There was Boris Ivanovich played by the same guy who played Antigonus in "The Winter's Tale", Victor Victorovich played by my favorite Darrell D’Silva, and Sergey played by the fantastic Richard Katz. All three were fantastic. Boris Ivanovich was a power hungry leader with a 7% approval rating who was not very concerned with how his government was run. Victor Victorovich was a cop who was trying to return the city to old roots. And not in a good way. He was more concerned about acquiring old weapons like his sword Delilah or an old set of daggers and renaming the local paper to The Sword and Panther than running a city. Then Sergey was an old friend of Ilya’s now editing a newspaper who wanted to return the city to the people. There were some very disturbing scenes but some very funny ones as well.

I really didn’t understand what the main point of this play was. Ilya was shown on all the posters so I thought he would be the main character, but he hardly ever spoke. Ilya was the shell-shocked soldier and he was really cute. He didn’t have a lot of lines and his action mostly consisted of walking dazed around the stage. The plot lines were unclear. Obviously there is some important reason the playwright wrote the play, but it just wasn’t clearly conveyed to the audience.

Although the play itself was strange, the actors were fantastic at playing these odd characters. I really like the character of Victor Victorovich played by Darrell D’Silva. That man was absolutely brilliant in everything he was in and he played very different characters in each one. Also Richard Katz as the journalist was awesome.

As I’ve tried to digest this play I have only come up with a few possibilities as to what it is trying to convey to the audience. One of my classmates offered that all she gathered was that we should be nice to our war veterans. Perhaps the play was a critique on the government of Russia as there were three different parties vying for Ilya’s endorsement for the next election. I am not sure why the play was title “The Drunks”. Sure people drank a lot throughout, but I can’t connect the title to a main idea, except that alcohol caused Ilya’s hallucinations. Perhaps the play showed how much a town can be changed and effected by war. Ilya’s home town is drastically different when he returns to it exemplified by the fact that Communist Street had changed names to Democracy Street. I thought that was so ironic as the people in power were basically controlling tyrants still just under a different label. It may have been a critique on what a hero is. Ilya was praised as a hero because it was beneficial to the powers that be. My most general idea is that it was a critique of modern Russia and its brokenness and bleakness. The final scene gave me the idea that maybe the playwright is putting hope in the future generation. Ilya and Natasha leave a son who in the play was only shown as a beam of light. Russia is now in the hands of the next generation and it relies on them to try to heal the country. All in all, kind of a bleak play to end on! But I was glad this was the last play because if it had been one of the others I really would have been reluctant to leave Stratford!

"It Is Required You Do Awake Your Faith..."

We went and saw “The Winter’s Tale” also while we were in Stratford. I thoroughly enjoyed this production. The first half was hard to watch because I was so squished and sitting next to an old lady who kept shushing everyone who moved. But at the interval one of the girls on my trip had scoped out seats on the 3rd row! So we moved down there! I was fascinated with the use of the set. The opening set was a black floor with gold swirls throughout it, a hanging light, and two giant bookcases flanking the back of the set with a door in between them. The bookcases set up a very academic and strict atmosphere for Sicilia and the home of Leontes. The coolest part of the entire play was near the end of the first half when the bookshelves fell in and the books fell everywhere with papers flying everywhere as Leontes left the stage between the falling bookcases. It was utterly breathtaking. Definitely one of the coolest if not THE coolest moments I’ve seen onstage.

I liked the connection with the falling bookcases and the preceding events in the play. As Leontes loses his family starting with Mamillius and then Hermione, his actual home is also falling apart symbolizes the destruction of his line as his heir is dead. The only thing I was disappointed with was that the bookcases stayed collapsed the entire time. I really thought that when Hermione came down from being a statue that the chandelier and bookcases would return to their upright position at the beginning of the play to show the restoration of the family. Perhaps they were left down to show that it was an entirely happy ending because their son Mamillius is still dead.

Right after the bookcases fall, the setting switches to the seaside in the country of Bohemia. So the books that had just fallen down were used as the surf and waves on the seashore. So cool!

The set for Bohemia was really a contrast to Sicilia. It was brighter and definitely more colorful with pages strewn everywhere. Even the tree that came out of the ceiling had pages from books for their leaves.

The set was also cool because of the way the idea of the “tale” perpetuates throughout the play. The second act begins with a stage covered in book pages, the tree leaves are leaves of paper, the bear is made of book pages and the goats are made of book pages. It reminds the audience that they are watching a fairy tale. Which The Winter’s Tale is totally a fairy tale, although I rarely think of Shakespeare as writing fairy tales. This picture is of Time in the like bubble thing and then Perdita in the tree. She was in that tree for like 10 minutes just hanging above the stage. And the personification of time was cool because it was very Dickensian. It kept that "tale" feel as you began the second half.

One of the most famous things about "The Winter's Tale" is the stage direction Shakespeare gave to the character of Antingonus, "exit, pursued by a bear". Shakespeare rarely gave stage directions, so when you do have one in his plays, it must be really important. This bear was freaking cool. It was a giant puppet that was also made out of pages of books. My only problem with it was that Antigonus wasn't pursued by the bear, it just kind of devoured him. But on the plus side, he died defending the baby Perdita.

For those who aren’t familiar with the play, it hinges on Leontes belief that his wife is cheating on him with his best friend Polixenes. In this production, Hermione and Polixenes relationship was almost too flirtacious.

Greg Hicks made a fantastic and paranoid Leontes. He makes his character exasperating and cruel to the audience, but yet you are drawn to feel sympathetic towards him when he realizes his faults and his life falls apart.

Also Greg Hicks just reminds me of like a Mel Gibson or Russel Crowe. He commands the play like that. And he may be old, but I think he is quite good looking. Especially when I saw him at the pub after the play…We got to have a question and answer session with the actress who played Hermione, Kelly Hunter. She played a very emotional Hermione. Not how I pictured the character but it made her a ver strong character who evoked sympathy from the audience. She was a great actor opposite Greg Hicks. And she was a remarkable statue.

Polixenes was played by Darrell D’Silva. This guy is a ridiculous actor. I saw him as Marc Antony, Polixenes and then a hilarious Russian weapon-obsessed corrupted ruler. Three totally different characters, three totally different performances, but all three were ridiculously amazing.

I thought this was some of the best music that I had heard so far. The quiet and chilling music of Sicilia highlighted the uneasy and confining atmosphere that was present. Then in Bohemia the musicians were onstage playing light folksy music, which helped to emphasize the great differences between the two countries. This picture is of Antigonus, the thief/fool, as he emerges into Bohemia with the musicians behind him.

The costuming and coloring reflected the atmospheres of both countries. Everything was tailored and dark in Sicilia while Bohemia was filled with color and more flowy costumes. Perdita became the link between the two countries both literally and through the costumes.

She literally brings the countries together by her return but she returns wearing a pink dress that brings color back into the country of Sicilia. I was a little disappointed with Samantha Young’s Perdita. She was exactly like we saw her in another play, which I’m not sure if it was a character thing or an acting thin. Perdita is a very important character when you read the text, but this Perdita seemed timid and shy where she needed to be bold and confident.

The little boy Mamillius was so cute! I’m always amazed when these 9 and 10 year old kids can act in professional productions. He was adorable.

Paulina seemed to command the play to me. One of the themes I’ve noticed about Shakespeare is that he has a high respect for women. While there are some flighty women, he makes many of them intelligent who run the action of the play and are really the heroes. Paulina had a very commanding presence over all around her. She has more guts and courage than any of the men around her but is still confined to the position of a woman.

One of my favorite Shakespeare lines is spoken by this character when she says, “It is required you do awake your faith”, or something to that effect. That’s the point in the play where I started to lose it. I find it so interesting how this line applies to the entire play of “The Winter’s Tale” and not just the scene with Hermione’s statue. I think it would be interesting if that line was said at the beginning of the play or printed in the programs or put up around the theatre. “The Winter’s Tale” demands the willing suspension of disbelief and tells an unexpected fairy tale.

"Are you dead from the neck up?"

Alright, besides plays, we did do a lot of stuff around town as well. But the plays were the best part. On Monday we visited Hall’s Croft and Nash’s house. Hall’s Croft is where Shakespeare’s eldest daughter Susanna lived with her husband Dr. John Hall. They were really rich. It was kind of boring because we’ve seen like a thousand homes that were somehow associated with Shakespeare. He never lived at this one or anything so it was just like Stratford was just trying to turn everything into a museum so they can make as much money as possible. The tour guide in Hall’s Croft was really mean. He said, “Are you guys dead from the neck up?” No, your house is just boring. This was the most exciting thing.

The gardens were pretty too.

Then we went to Nash’s house and New Place. Nash’s house is where Shakespeare’s granddaughter lived. That is a stretch. Next door was New Place where Shakespeare’s house used to be. He bought it after he was super rich so apparently it was really nice. It is now just a garden.

But we really just enjoyed coloring our own knot gardens.

That night we went to Julius Caesar, which I already wrote a blog post about so just read my last post if you want to know more about it. On Tuesday we had class in the morning. We had a Q&A with the Company Manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Michael Dembowicz. We were hoping to get an actor, but he gave us interesting insight into the life of people in the RSC. Um, let’s just say it’s ridiculous. There’s a company of 45 actors who between them did 6 plays this season. The actors are in 3 plays each with different directors. Then in two weeks rehearsals start for another 4 plays with the same group of actors. So he has to juggle rehearsal times for all of these with the rehearsals for the current productions and the actual performances and at the same time be working with the other departments like marketing or the board to make sure everything is going smoothly. He told us he has one day next year where nothing is scheduled. Crazy. Just as a visual, this is the theatre we saw everything in, The Courtyard. It’s actually a temporary theatre but it’s what the new theatre will look like but on a smaller scale. This seated 1,000 people and was very nice for a temporary theatre.

Tuesday afternoon we went to Trinity Church. I went there the other day for church and it was cool. They’re doing construction right now so we couldn’t actually see Shakespeare’s grave very well because they wouldn’t let us through with all the scaffolding…

The Church is very beautiful though.

On Wednesday, we had a lecture about a portrait of Shakespeare that they think they have found. It was given by Sir Stanley Wells who actually found the portrait and have conducted all the research on it. They still don’t know for sure that it was him. The thing is there is no definitive portrait that we have that we know was painted of Shakespeare during his lifetime. They have dated this one and it would have been painted while he was still alive. It was found in the former home of his patron and one of the very few who Shakespeare ever actually dedicated a work to. So they think it’s him, but they aren’t sure.

In the afternoon we had a drama workshop! I had fun, although I think some people in our group did not. I got singled out to read Juliet’s entire monologue right before her suicide! I answered a question and then she was like ok now get up and do the whole thing. It was cool to see the process that these actors go through when preparing for these roles. We had to go through the lines and translate them into modern English so that we would know their meanings. Then we had to figure out who each line was directed to, even in the soliloquies! Then we got to do some scenes from “The Winter’s Tale” which we were seeing that night. All the groups had the same scene but we had to each play them differently. My group played the scene like it was a family court, but other groups had to pretend that it was an Oprah show, a dinner party gone wrong and someone’s deathbed. It was then cool to see how the scene was actually played out in the show that night. I really have fun doing things like that. And I got to play King Leontes who had killed his wife so extra fun! I’m writing a separate post on the actual production of the play we saw that night.

That night we went to a pub/bar called the Dirty Duck. The real name is the Black Swan but it developed that nickname over the years. It was a really cool place because it’s traditionally where the actors hang out after the performance.

I thought that we might see only one or two, but as soon as we got there practically the entire company was coming in behind us. So we were just creepers for a little while and just watched some of them. They actually have a separate room and bar just for them, which is neat. At the end of the night one of the actors pulled over his chair and talked to us. He was only a year or two older than us we think. It’s just crazy that someone about my age already has a job with the most prestigious acting company maybe in the whole world.

On Thursday we had our last Q&A with Kelly Hunter who played Hermione in “The Winter’s Tale”. This was the best Q&A yet.

She gave us insight into how she prepares for her roles. She always learns her lines before rehearsals and when she learns a speech she pays particular attention to the last word of every line. She can go through each one of her speeches and recite only the last word of each line. Also, Hermione has a scene where she has to pretend to be a statue on stage for about seven and a half minutes and then come to life. From the moment she leaves stage in the first half she starts doing meditation exercises to slow her heartbeat down. She doesn’t eat or drink anything so that her body stops those functions. Then she wraps herself up in a fire blanket and basically goes to sleep until it’s time to go on as the statue. And she does not move! It was fantastic.

That afternoon we had a wig and makeup demonstration! That was really neat too. She put some fake wounds and costumes on people. AnnGarner got a lovely head wound...

And Andrew got to wear some women's clothing...

And then…I got my throat slit! It was awesome! Except that she neglected to take into account that I was wearing a white shirt. I was finding blood in all kinds of places that night…Anyways, we got to see the different ways they got blood on people in Julius Caesar. Caesar actually wore a harness with a bag of blood in it that the actors would break open at the right moment.

That night we saw “The Drunks” which is a new Russian play. I may just write a separate post about that because this is getting too long. So this morning we left our lovely guest house, Forget-Me-Not, and the lovely lady, Kate, who took care of us for almost 2 weeks.

We were all very, very sad to leave. And now I sit in Carlisle, England. We saw Coventry Cathedral today which was bombed by the Germans in World War 2.

Sorry to throw all of this out in one post, but I had gotten behind! I miss you all!