First off I just need to say, Happy 100th Blog Post! Between two different study abroad opportunities I have now blogged one hundred different days. Wahoo.
Today was quite a busy day. It's one of those fun times where you feel like the day lasted forever, but at the same time it flew by so quickly. As I sat down to write this blog post I felt intimidated because I didn't even know where to start. This morning feels like it happened forever ago. I woke up a bit earlier than usual so that I could go with a group of other students to the Seven Dials, a plaza here in London, in the hopes of buying tickets to see Matilda the Musical. The theatre that puts on the show has a great deal that students aged 18-25 can buy £5 tickets to the show. The catch is that they only sell 16 per show (twice the amount of tickets they gave out last time I was here in 2012). A few different people from our group have already been and said that the line wasn't really too competitive anymore, so we didn't leave too early (7:30 compared to the 6:30 that I was expecting before). Unfortunately today must have just been a Matilda sort of day for some people because by the time my little ragtag group got the theatre, there were already 20 people in line for the theatre! We were momentarily bummed, but I think that we were also ok with not having to wait in line for two hours until the box office opened. We stopped by a Starbucks where I got some Hot Chocolate and then went back to the flats to rest for a bit. I felt bad for Dallin and Sarah because we couldn't get tickets. I'm mostly fine because I have already seen the show, but I would still love to see it again.
After bumming around for a bit we took the Tube out to Borough Market. Due to our interesting schedule as of late I have not been able to go to Borough for a while, which is quite the tragedy. It's only open fully on the weekends plus Thursday, so I was glad that I got to go! I finally bought a Cheese Toasty, one of the more popular food items sold in the market. It's a grilled cheese sandwich that is somehow incredibly delicious and incredibly awful. It's the weirdest thing because you bite into the greasy sucker and your first instinct is to spit it out because it tastes pretty weird. And then suddenly your mouth is happy and your taste buds do a little dance and you have to eat more. Then just as quickly as it started it is over and you feel like it was a good decision but then there's the aftertaste! It's such a trial, but it is worth it because for some reason that I still can't fathom it is amazingly delicious.
Borough Market and the many offerings there
Oh hey, it's a pig
Borough market is tucked next to this beautiful cathedral
Why hello Mr. Cheese Toasty
Cue angelic singing
Borough Market is just around the corner from our next destination, The Globe Theatre! Our entire group got tickets to see Anthony and Cleopatra. We had to read the play for class and have spent some of the last few days talking about the show, and I was excited to see it performed! The Globe productions are always quite fantastic. We got to the theatre about two hours early so that we could wait in the groundling line. We already had our tickets, but since groundlings don't have reserved seating, it's first come first serve in finding the perfect spot to stand, aka, right in front of the stage. We had discovered from our last venture that we were not so much trying to beat out other people wishing to attend the show, but our own group. Unfortunately the stage was not big enough for all of us once they added some ramps and other things to it. When we arrived the only people that were in line were people from my own study abroad group, but my spot was still very close to the front. This time I came prepared with not only my playing cards, but my Kindle and my journal as well. This morning I downloaded the first three Harry Potter books to my Kindle, so I should be set on that front for a quite a while! I have been meaning to reread the series again, and I figured that where better to read Harry Potter than in England?
While we were waiting in line we met an adorable elderly couple who quickly became some of my favorite Brits. I'm sad that I never learned their names, but for the sake of my writing in the blog we shall refer to them as Guy and Gal. Guy and Gal came prepared to wait in the groundling line with mini chairs and they actually sat right next to Dallin and I in line. For the first little while we didn't actually talk with them, but were prompted into conversation when the girls at the front of the line started handing out candy. They passed down a bag of Wine Gummies and told us to pass them all the way down the line. While we were initially hesitant to hand candy to the strangers (now that's backwards), we did so. Gal said no thanks and began passing the candy along when Guy said, "Now hold on" and began eating some of the candies. It was great! We then started talking and discovered that they were both very nice and quite a hoot! They are both in their seventies but always like to go to the Globe to see all the new productions. Every time they go as groundling because the tickets are significantly cheaper than the sitting seats. They joked that they are usually at the front of the line, so leave it to the Americans to mess that up for them. We talked about a lot of things, including the use of blood in shows like Titus Andronicus. When we told Gal that we had heard some people fainted, she said, "We have a word for that here. Wimp. Do you use Wimp in America?" She instantly became my favorite. When we were finally allowed in to the theatre they stood by our group and continued to visit with us during the interval and afterwards as well! I'm so upset that I didn't get their names, but I did manage to get a picture with them!
Anthony and Cleopatra was great, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like the character of Cleopatra. I have never really felt sympathetic for her character while reading the play, but the actress in this production did a great job of making her a sympathetic character. Like all Globe productions the cast was superb and the energy was great. One of the cast members actually couldn't make it to the show so they had to find someone else to come on for him. The Globe doesn't have understudies, so the man that replaced the role actually came out holding the script for many of the scenes, but even then he acted it out so well that it didn't even feel like a problem. Though I wouldn't say it was the best production that I have seen, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even the goat that they sacrificed during intermission to the soothsayer.
View from the Globe Gates
What else is one to do while waiting for a show?
At the show with our new friends
Soothsayer sacrificing a goat (Gal told me to take a photo, saying "How often do you see that?")
The Globe Production was a matinee and it was finished by five, suddenly leaving us with an open evening. While most people decided that they wanted to head back for the night, I really wanted to go out and about. I stopped to get a quick dinner that I ate by the river, and then went across the Thames and bought myself a ticket to see 1984. They recently opened up a this production that is a stage adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell. I really love that book and a few other members of the group had seen the play and recommended it, so I knew that I had to go and see it. I bought my ticket for £19.84 (see what they did there?) and then went to a park to read until the show started. The park was not one that I had been to before, so it was nice to find a new place to relax. It was gorgeous and I sat near a little clearing where there were ping-pong tables set up, and quite a few people were playing on them. I've seen these a few times before. Apparently that's a thing here!
Crossing the Thames
My new park (note the Ping Pong players in the bottom corner area)
Though my ticket to 1984 was pretty cheap, I had decent seats to a very fascinating and well done performance. My mind is actually still reeling from the experience. It was actually very off-putting. The narrative was very blurred as it tried to show the struggle that Winston went through as he decided to rebel against the dystopian government in which he lived. The production used strobe lighting and screens to depict a very warped world. There were often times where you could not tell what was really happening on stage and what was happening in Winston's mind as he grappled with his dark world. IT was very hard to watch as his character was eventually tortured, and the portrayal was incredibly real. There was even a part where the lights in the audience came on during the torture and Winston begged us directly to save him, asking why we won't come out of ourselves to help. It was jarring and really made me think. A new twist was added in that there was an appendix of sorts that created a story within a story. The whole production was evidently people from the future reading about 1984 as if it were their actual history. They asked how the government came to be overthrown, only to learn that Big Brother has always been in their society. It managed to take the wonderful story from the novel and play with it in a big way, and aim it towards us as an audience to make us think. It was haunting and I loved it.
Playhouse Theatre hosting 1984
The show was about an hour and a half long and featured no interval. I think they were trying to make sure that the atmosphere was maintained by avoiding a break in the middle. This meant that when the show was over it was actually still light outside. The sun was just beginning to set and I decided to take a walk around the Thames and over by Westminster. I found myself staring at this beautiful city and how perfectly the light seemed to fall on everything. For a moment I was so overwhelmed by the grandness of it all.
A new view of Big Ben
The sunset was amazing tonight
A panorama I took on the Golden Jubilee bridge featuring the two sides of the Thames
Pictures just can't seem to do it justice
And I find myself at the end of another fantastic day
To celebrate a day well spent, I stopped by a special item grocery store where I bought myself a Rootbeer. No one drinks Rootbeer here so it is not sold at most stores or restaurants. It's my favorite drink, and even though I had to pay £1.50 (about $2) for a can, it was worth it to finish the day with a nice cherry on top.
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