Yesterday we went to Stratford-upon-Avon for the day to experience the life and times of William Shakespeare.  Had a traditional English meal at the “The Rose & Crown” pub and took the tour of Shakespeare’s birthplace and home.  I may have accidentally let some gas slip in Shakespeare’s bedroom >.<  After the tour we watched a 4 person troupe do a ton of scenes.  It was Shakespeare On Demand.  We called out Taming of the Shrew, Benedick, Midsummer, Hamlet, a history and they could do any scene on the spot.  They were incredible and really appreciated having an engaging crowd - rather than the usual asian tourists who couldn’t speak English and didn’t know any Shakespeare.  We stayed for a good 45 minutes to watch when most people stay for a scene or two.

Then we continued on to the Shakespeare bookshop.  To quote Hannah, “We’re doing a bookend tour.  Started with birth, now we’re getting some life, and now we heading over to death.” Where we continued onto the Holy Trinity church where Shakespeare is buried.  We started walking along the River Avon towards the church and after about 20 minutes realized we were on the wrong side of the river from the church, so the 7 of us had to double back and take the ferry across the river for 50 pence.  It was all very amusing.  The river was beautiful.  We finally got to the church just as it was closing - thank god - because it is breathtaking inside.  The stained glass alone is incredible, then there’s the architecture itself and and graves.  

We went to the Black Swan for dinner - a pub right next to the Courtyard Theatre wher we saw The Winter’s Tale.  The theatre itself was stunning - a thrust stage with these 2 towering bookcases at the back of the playing space.  Every book on the shelves was absolutely real, as we found out when the bookcases toppled over in the middle of Act 1 after the trial scene when Hermione dies, and hundreds of books went flying across the stage.  It was an incredible spectacle.  The books laid there in piles in front of the destroyed bookshelves for the rest of the play.  And to symbolize the cold, desolation of Leontes, loose pages of books represented snow and were constantly flying across the stage in gusts of wind.  It was quite cool.  And the bear that comes out was a giant puppet made out of pages!  And after intermission when the play jumped forward 15 years and moved to the forest, there were these beautiful trees that had red, yellow, and green pages on them to represent the leaves of the tree.  The show was incredible visually - but I wasn’t in love with it for the play itself.  It took me a while to warm up to Leontes - he was great at the end of Act 1 and Act 2 - but I didn’t care for him at the beginning.  Hermione was great.  The daughter was okay, but I really liked her lover.  I think my biggest problems are with the play itself - I definitely see why it’s a “problem play.”  It couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be a comedy or tragedy….all of Act 1 was dramatic then the first half of Act 2 was like “As You Like It” with fools, tribal dancing, and a much brighter, lighter tone.  But the second half of Act 2 brought the show back into desolate depression - but while Leontes is mourning the “death” of his wife the character of Paulina keeps delivering these funny side comments.  It just kept juggling between tragedy and comedy and I couldn’t find a good through-line for the show.  Most of the kids at BADA keep saying how beyond incredible it was - I enjoyed it - but it definitely wasn’t life changing - only technically was it phenomenal….in my opinion.

We are having a Q&A with the two main actors from the production today. Greg Hicks as Leontes and Kelly Hunter as Hermione (both of whom I thoroughly enjoyed, after I warmed up to Leontes) - so I should get a little more insight into the show as a whole.