lovers parting, bittersweet

vinegar, leaving; sugar, returning - sad to go; happy to arrive

All packed, excepting PJs, toothbrush and such.

Been such a good last week.

Dream at the Globe was overall okay. Bottom and the mechanicals were hilarious, rollicking fun: truly delightful, they got the loudest applause.

I'll be pondering Timon of Athens (also a Globe production) for a while. Only the second play of Shakespeare's I'd seen without reading the text first, hence the first act tricky to follow. (The first was Julius Caesar, but I think that story is part of our collective memory; easy to follow throughout.) Dark, distancing, disturbing; poignant in its portrayal of (literally) ravenous creditors. Intermission was announced by the actors running through the yard (and swinging over it) shouting, "Get out! The house is broken! Get out!" It took a surpisingly long while for the audience to get the message. I was already buying a snack and a Pimms by the time they at large began exiting.

Did the Globe Rose Theatre and Exhibition Tour yesterday. Was very happy to have a knowledgeable, articulate and witty guide. Interesting to know that the original Globe's site cannot be excavated, though it is a historical site, because built onto it is another historic site: a Georgian building. Legal protection meets legal protection. Listened to Ellen Terry act Juliet's "This dismal scene I must needs act alone" scene: such spirited fright! I stayed longer than planned and spent the late afternoon, early evening walking around, basking.

Today I toured the Tate Britain, and again I wish I had the "extra credits" to take an art history course. (Though over time I know I'll give myself the education.) There were several paintings I stood in front of for a long, long time - ended up sacrificing a last trip to the Royal Albert Hall, where I would have heard several works by J.S. Bach, including the most famous Toccata and Fugue. But I am happy to have stayed. Though nothing beats a great performance in a great performance hall, my Bose headphones do come close; and pictures online or in a book absolutely do not beat the actual work of painters, presented properly.

O, sigh.

See most of you soon! And Prof. McDonald, thank you again for all your informed, entertaining assistance. I will see you (and London) later in life, later in career! (And the poems of Philip Larkin are wonderful, thank you!)

Hoping Heathrow has a West Cornwall Pasty Co., would love to have one last delicious, hearty traditional pasty . . . Also that I, you know, land okay . . .

Typos

Okay, scanned over past blogs, was feeling nostalgic and sad that I must leave soon . . .

And I must say that, yes, I am an English Student (also a Theatre), and also that, yes, I do know how to spell and otherwise write well . . . though apparently when writing quickly, stream-of-consciousness bunny-hop quick (as opposed to the ponderous, turtle-like concentration appropriate for mid-or-end of semester papers or even short story type of writing) I write sloppily, especially substituting words that sound similar to those I intend, like "right" for "write" or - and this being one of those almost appropriate substitutions - "wondering" for "wandering."

Okay, self-bruised ego satisfied.

Almost.

I used way to many commas, ellipses, dashes and parenthetical marks above.

Promised Photos

Been tinkering with some different features on my camera - as is hopefully noticeable. Hope you like them! In order,
Leaf on pavement. Near National Portrait Gallery.
Monument to Prince Albert (part of it, and the name may not be correct). Across from Royal Albert Hall.
Statue of Henry Irving. Near National Portrait Gallery.
Statue of the God Eros. In Picadilly Circus.
Statue of Shakespeare. In Leicester Square.

Grooving the Square

This last week . . . one of the best; strong feeling of rightness. Aforementioned, Winter's Tale was a wonder. No other show shows this week, but on Friday heard/ saw a selection of the compositions of Janacek at the Royal Albert Hall . . . Taras Bulba (still my favorite) not performed, but the works were very good (and only heard on first listen, first impression, never a good way to judge a classical work) and I figure I'll grab their titles off the BBC Proms website and check them out again later. (Also some good free performances of music outside the British Library at lunch breaks or for a few minutes late afternoons before catching the tube.) As I wanted to and did, lots of walking around, nights, just vagabond-roaming where fancy fancied . . . rewarding, chilled. Know now that there are a lot of little dishes - nothing expensive, all yumyum-tasty - that I will miss: West Cornwall Pasty, this craftiness called a Lamb Donar, lots of the Bizarro-world (vaguely recognizable but distinctly different) sandwiches, and others. (Though I'm looking forward to a pastrami and swiss sandwich at home - I know they've got them here somewhere, but I haven't found them.) Hit Waterstone's bookstore again - there's a something like five-story one in Picadilly Circus, though there drama collection is oddly paltry compared to the one that's a short hike from the British Library. Went there with a Maltese architect friend (who got all dreamy-eyed over the architecture books) and picked up Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the only non-project specific (directly) book I've read this summer. Very good: been devouring it on the tube, during lunch or those few stolen minutes before sleep. Oh, and leaving Waterstone's my friend was thinking about grabbing a photo outside the Malta embassy, which is across the street, but it was dark and he changed his mind with a "That's okay, no one's going to blow it up." Funny. Weekend very good. Spent Saturday hiking all around Picadilly and Oxford Circus and Trafalgar Square and farther . . . all places relatively near each other but my wandering was aimless, just for fun so I retread the same ground and took all those alleys you never take when you have to be somewhere at a specific time. Watched the Olympics on a giant screen in Trafalgar Square for about a half hour, apparently the Brits were winning a lot of gold that day (later newspapers and radio confirmed); everyone was happy - and loud. Sunday (today) wondered around the parks again - Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Sunny and right for it. Did finally get to Speaker's Corner - a hypnotically captivating place where all different sorts gather to rant and rave and save the world or your soul, whichever they think is more important - this world or the next, I guess. And one comedian speaker who looked like a diseased John Waters who basically heckled the others and taunted the audience and made parents cover the ears of their children and walk quickly away as he told filthy jokes . . . Project is going better, much. Transcribed the alterations from what I'm almost positive is a recording of a 1952 Old Vic production of Romeo and Juliet, am working through some very good texts now on almost precisely what I'm studying, and on the play I'm studying . . . UNH unfortunately doesn't have them and I can't read them all this week but the Boston Consortium does have them and hopefully I can get them real quick after I get back. Going to order them here, this week, online, to try and make this hope a reality. (The almost is good: an exact match and my work would be reduntant, too much different and my work would be difficult to contextualize.) Will be having my last meeting with my mentor this week, sadly . . . he's been such a great help and, well, he's funny too; good to chat with. Agonizing whether I should just not go to the British Library one day of the five (Monday - Friday) this week and take this off-day and go to the Globe Exhibition Center . . . Maybe. Next weekend is maybe either the Tower or Greenwich again (for the Ranger's House and Queen's Mansion) and Sunday will be for packing and Bach's Toccata and Fugue at the Royal Albert Hall. Monday fly back - mixed feeling about that and also a touch anxious - strikes will be happening at some airports and I guess even at Heathrow (where I'm leaving from) there was a glitch and a lot of lost luggage, some cancelled flights and a lot of delayed recently. Hopefully no hitches! Anyway, if I don't right soon it's because I'm enjoying myself!

Will add some photos soon!

WONDER

On the Globe's touring production of Winter's Tale, or, as a sum, a part of it,

When Leontes and company gathered to behold the statue of Hermione, and throughout this scene, tears were in my eyes, hope was in my heart, goosebumps stood out on the whole of me, and when the statue came to life, my breath was taken away . . .

By far the most miraculous production of Shakespeare I've scene.

God bless those actors who included this play in the Folio.

Apple-spitting

Last week's shows - Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy and a Polish company outdoor production of Macbeth - were wonderful. (Also saw Wives again at the Globe, and just as fun as the first time.)

Turns out I like Middleton - when done well - in performance. The Changeling (written with Rowley), seen weeks ago, was not done well, and hence not enjoyed (biggest problem was simply bad acting). This production (of Revenger's) was great, set as a (courtly) rave, with all the drugs, sex, and madness one would expect. Music was a blast - live, Gothic techno. Some of the actors seemed to have a difficult time embodying the text, as if they couldn't quite find their characters with it, but the main guy - Vindice, or something like - got his spot on.

The outdoor Macbeth was thoroughly disturbing. Most of the text went the way of the axe, nightmare-like images were favored. Perhaps a bit reductive as far as the psychological depth of the characters go, but then again, maybe not. The images seemed to retain and enhance something tonally that might otherwise have been lost with the cuts. One image I'm still thinking about - it worked, though not yet sure why. After the murder of Duncan, in a sort of coronation dinner for Macbeth, two servants, without using their hands, devour the same apple, sort of kissing it between them, and while one had the apple in his or her mouth the other chewed and spit their bits all over the face of the first. Weird, but again, it somehow worked, especially with the industrial chamber opera arias going on simultaneously. Other highlights, witches on stilts, real fire, operating motorcycles - I've thought it before and now again, there's something about the olfactory that lends itself to certain productions. (Sometimes it might be unduly distracting, for example - and not done here - like a yummy smelling dinner tantalizing those in the audience who weren't able to catch their dinner before their show.)

Weekend great too - though the rain tried to dampen it. Went to a jazz festival on Saturday and got soaked out in the afternoon but went back that night and saw the James Taylor Quartet; some wonderful, wonderful rock-like jazz. Back to the Victoria and Albert on Sunday with a friend, afterwards coffee; saw some good exhibits that I'd missed before though some we wanted to see were closed in prep for the fall exhibits.

Seeing The Winter's Tale tonight at The Globe; meeting with my mentor today to refocus.

In my "down time" at night I'll mostly be walking around (when not seeing shows) and I think the places I most hope to see that I haven't yet - hoping at least one is open on a Saturday - are the Tower and the Globe Exhibition Center. Hopefully!

Only two weeks left!

;(

brick wall #723

Well, at least the show nights for this week begin today. Much, much, much looking forward to The Revenger's Tragedy at Olivier/ National tonight.

Really glad I started early last week - in between other parts of research - to search and inquire about Gielgud and Olivier scripts; found out that much sooner that - as far as most productions and especially most Shakespeare productions - almost none survive, or at least are here. (No Gielgud, two Olivier - though, as near as I can tell, neither a 'major' production.) There are his three 'big' Shakespeare film scripts, but what I've been trying to focus on is stage productions, and film would likely open my project to a perhaps unmanageable scope.

Also, running across information that there were a lot of Shakespeare burlesque productions in the 1800s, and am not sure what this does for the Irving studies part of my project; don't really have time now to go back and research that new piece of info.

Major problem is I wanted to look for what was the continuity or through-line, and Irving/ Gielgud & Olivier/ Now might've provided it. To the best of my knowledge there was no other major period of staging between Irving and the next - Gielgud came quickly following anyway - as far as major actors/ actor-manager producer-directors are concerned. It seems that an entirely different system came to being during the last third to half of Olivier's career as far as this field goes - even the RSC, perhaps the most influential venue worldwide, though having its star directors and star stars, seems largely more a corporate project.

Going to read some articles and such on how humor functions in Shakespeare tomorrow (which I need to do) while thinking/ fretting about what to do next. Obviously should - or at least must - come up with something + should be receiving some advice soon.

Anyway!

Figuring out all the bells and whistles of my camera finally. B&W shots, widescreen, color enhancements - perhaps I'll get some better photos!