Days 6 & 7

It's hard to believe we've only been here a week. We've crammed so much into these last 7 days that it feels like we should be nearing the end of the trip, but we still have 3 more weeks! I really can't believe how lucky we are.

On Monday, we loaded out of our place at Earl's Court and made our way down to Stratford-upon-Avon for a two night stay. I had been to Stratford once before when I came to England with my high school's theatre department in 2012, and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip, so I was excited to return. Seeing Shakespeare's birthplace and (supposedly) walking on the same floors he walked on is definitely up there on the list of Cool Things I've done. 

The first night we got to Stratford, we saw Christopher Marlowe's Jew of Malta at the Swan Theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The show itself does not have a lot of substantial roles for women except for Abigail, the daughter of the main character Barabas. We saw the understudy play the role of Abigail as the original actress, Catrin Stewart, was out sick. Despite being an understudy, I think Rhiannon Handy had a real grip on the character of Abigail. She is sassy, flirty, and very much her father's daughter. However, she is also defined and ruled by the men in her life, which was the way of the world for women in Marlowe's day. Her father and the two men who love her treat her as an item to be won rather than a person. Abigail dies (at her father's hands) as a nun without getting closure for her losses because the men in her life manipulated each other at her expense. 

While there are some parallells between the women in Jew of Malta and John Ford's Love's Sacrifice, there is one vast difference: the women in Love's Sacrifice get their revenge. Julia, Colona, and Morona are all, essentially, played by Ferentes and all end up pregnant by him. When they all find out that he has been telling them all the same lies, that he is loyal to only them, they plan their revenge. They (quite elaborately) kill him and, at least in the world of the show, are never reprimanded for it. The women are empowered in this, something that you don't often see in shows written at this time. It's also important to keep in mind that their roles would have been played by boys at the time when it was first produced. Ferentes is pretty explicitly sexual with these three characters, which brings in the idea of implied homosexuality. It would be interesting to see how their characters would have been handled differently because of the actors playing them, or if there is a difference at all. 

This morning we headed back to London and got our new lodgings at Pickwick Hall. I'm glad to be back in the center of things and go to Quiz Night at the Charles Dickens Pub tonight!