Days 4 & 5

In the past five days I have seen six shows. I am a very happy theatre geek right now.

   

On Friday night, we visited the National Theatre to see Caryl Churchill's A Light Shining in Buckinhamshire. The theatre is nationally subsidized, and has been putting on shows in it's current location in Southbank since 1976. The National Theatre Act was passed in Parliament in January of 1949, but it had some trouble starting up. Almost ten years passed after the bill went through Parliament, and still nothing had happened. In fact, in 1961, the Government declared that Britain did not have enough money to have a national theatre. Luckily, "the LCC offered to pay half the cost of construction, in addition to providing the site rent free" (nationaltheatre.org.uk). In 1963, their first performance of Hamlet was put on at The Old Vic, one of the two sites of the National Theatre that is no longer apart of it today. The National Theatre now describes itself as a theatre that is "dedicated to the constant revitalization of the great traditions of the British stage and to expanding the horizons of audiences and artists alike" (nationaltheatre.org.uk). 

In some respects, Buckinghamshire fulfills the purpose of the National Theatre as it is an incredibly political and opinionated show that could expand the horizons of theatre-goers. However, you have to go in to the show knowing a thing or two about the British Civil War to really grasp the show. Although to be honest, even then, major themes and plot points could fly right over your head. The show was pretty hard to follow in that it was difficult to keep up with the many different characters and the choppy and seemingly unrelated scenes. Despite this, the show was technically beautiful. The Lyttelton Theatre lent itself wonderfully to the extravagant set. When the curtain opened at the top of the show, there was a collective gasp throughout the audience at how surreal and fantastical the set was. The songs that were interspersed throughout helped keep the audience intrigued as well, and those were some of my favorite parts of the show.

The next day, Saturday, was definitely my favorite day of the trip so far. Some of us won the lottery tickets to see Book of Mormon, one of my very favorite shows, in the front row. I've seen it once before, but definitely not like that. I think I watched the entire show smiling like an idiot. We all made eye contact with some of the performers at least once, and Elder Cunningham even came over and sang part of Man Up to me! Ah! We even stage-doored the show after and met a few of the leads and got pictures. That whole experience was basically the pinnacle of cool for me, which makes me the biggest nerd ever, but I'm okay with that.

That night we got to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, my 4th time seeing the show. That theatre is one of the biggest theatres I have ever been in, I can't imagine playing to that audience 8 times a week. The show, as per usual, was fantastic and beautiful. I can't believe I got to see two huge West End shows in one day, one being in the first row. Life is really, really good right now. Cheers!  

Day 3

Watching The Merchant of Venice in the yard of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre definitely qualifies as one of the highlights of my life. I've been involved with theatre since I was in third grade, and every drama class I've ever taken has at least one in depth section focusing on Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre, so to actually step foot inside it was absolutely surreal. Not going to lie, when I heard that we were standing for this performance, I did a little internal groan. Not that I wasn't excited, but the idea of standing for nearly three hours watching what I thought was going to be a pretty heavy and dramatic show was not the most enticing. I couldn't have been more wrong, though. Standing in the yard, maybe 4 feet from the edge of the stage, was the most fun I've ever had in the theatre. As soon as the show started with a lavish song and dance, I was in awe. It was like we had been invited to party with them, and I just stood starting up at the stage, smiling like an idiot. If before I had wanted to be sitting in the seats, now there was no place I'd rather be than standing in the yard. The performance was unlike any Shakespeare I've ever seen, and I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to enjoy Shakespeare the same way again. His shows were made to be played to the audience and to interact with the yard. In fact, I had so much fun standing there for three hours, that Camila and I are choosing to stand for As You Like It when we see it even though we have actual seats. 

There were plenty of stand out performances in the show, but Jonathan Pryce as Shylock was truly incredible. This show can be a difficult one to perform in and direct because, as we talked about, the antisemitism can be taken commentary or as actual antisemitism. Shylock himself can really be played as either a hero or a villain, and what I like about Pryce's performance is that he landed somewhere in between. He was human. One of the most profound moments in the show was his monologue to Antonio, asking if Jews were not unlike Christians. He's a man who has been outcast his entire life for his religion and been told he was unworthy because he was different, and he's simply asking if he can be seen as a person rather than plague on society. The final scene of Shylock's christening, which this production added in, made me feel sick to my stomach. Pryce's agony was so guttural and heart-wrenching, and it made me feel almost dirty watching it, like I was watching someone's death. It was beautiful and it absolutely broke my heart. His performance not only made me critically think about society and the way we treat those who are considered "different", but made me want to be a better person. And that is what great theatre is supposed to do.

Days 1 & 2

It's odd to go from counting down the days for months to actually being in London, but we're definitely here. It's still kind of surreal, and I find myself constantly having "pinch yourself" moments because even the mundane, ordinary things are made that much cooler simply because we're in London. I don't know if I have ever been more tired in my life than I was our first day. I'm not very good at sleeping anywhere else but a bed, so I hardly slept on the plane, and we hit the ground running as soon as we got here. I have been to London once before, and I vaguely (and I do mean vaguely) remember taking the tube. Mostly I remember how crowded it was, and I found my memory served me correctly as we got on the Piccadilly line to explore some of London with our professors. The tube was fairly easy to navigate with our leaders guiding us, but the adrenaline and excitement hit us when they left us in the middle of Leicester Square by ourselves. We took the tube to Embankment with the mission of finding The London Eye, The National Theatre, and Shakespeare's Globe. Predictably, the first was the easiest to find, as you could see it from a mile away.

 The National Theatre proved a bit harder to find, though it was only a short walk away. The theatre had a lot of fun advertisements for their show, Everyman (which we're seeing June 10th!), including a huge wall with finger pointing down painted on it, and a spot indicating where to stand if you want your picture with it (like I did).

 After most of us got our photo shoot in, we realized we couldn't find The Globe on the dinky little map we had, so we had to make like real tourists and ask for directions. It ended up being about a fifteen minute walk down the Thames River. When we finally found it, we made our way across the Millennium Bridge and back on the tube to Earl's Court.

That night, some of the girls and I went to go see The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre. We had gone to the TKTS booth earlier that day and got pretty great seats for only twelve pounds. I've never been to a "scary" show, so, as a horror film buff, I was very excited to see this production. At this point, I had been up since 8:30 the previous morning, and as much as I hate to admit it, I was very close to dozing off during the beginning of the show. It wasn't boring by any means, but it was like most horror movies in that it had a relatively slow beginning. However, after the woman made her first appearance about half an hour in, I was wide awake. It was so new and wonderful to be terrified like that in live theater. We were also on the balcony, and even though it's a small theatre and we had a wonderful view, I can't imagine how much more intense it is on the floor. The actors make entrances and exits through the audience, include the woman in black. I can pretty confidently say that I would've had trouble sleeping for the next week if she came up close to me in that audience.
The following night we saw The Father at the Tricycle Theatre. I don't think I've ever cried more in a show. It was one of the most beautiful, honest, heart-breaking shows I have ever seen, and a reminder to me of why I love theatre and why I want to act. I could sing it's praises all day long, but that would be a very long blog post. So I will end it here.
I can't put into words how excited I am for the rest of this month!