A pound of flesh...

Woo hoo! The sound I make on learning that my birthday treat in May this year will be to go and see Patrick Stewart in The Merchant of Venice with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon.  It's directed by Rupert Goold who also directed him in the version of Macbeth recently broadcast on tv, and whose version of Romeo and Juliet at the RSC last year almost converted me into liking it.  He's rather good.

Now Merchant is not one of my favourite plays, this probably has something to do with having to study it for O Level English Lit many moons ago, but I could probably listen to Patrick S read the telephone directory and still be enthralled.  I've always found the character of Antonio a tiresome wimp and I couldn't care less what happens to him, and how badly is Shylock treated? (I know, historical context blah, blah, blah, but still...).  And what the heck does a woman like Portia see in Bassanio?  I think she should have just set up her own legal practice and told all the men to take a running jump.  David's never seen the play so it will be interesting to see what he makes of it.

What has caused some 'gasp, shock, horror' however is the price of the tickets.  We're going on a Tuesday evening and it cost £92 for the two of us! £92!!!  I dread to think what it would be on a Saturday. Talk about a pound of flesh... what are the RSC thinking?  And why don't members get even a small discount on tickets?  I'm not going to moan, I'm really looking forward to it (possibly the only trip to the theatre that will happen this year at those prices!), but crikey that's expensive.  

And I thought the RSC were trying to make Shakespeare less elitist... 

Snow in Stratford...

Still smarting from the lack of George Clooney on Saturday night, I asked David if he'd like to go to Stratford upon Avon with me yesterday.  They had a lot more snow than we did and considering it's less than a week until Christmas the place was amazingly quiet.  We took the opportunity to have coffee in the theatre then went up to the top of the new tower, it has wonderful views made all the more stunning because of the snow.

Ice on the trees...

Two swans not swimming...

Decorations outside The Dirty Duck pub...

(when David Tennant played Hamlet he had to jump over 

the back wall of the pub to get in and avoid the mob of fans!)

Berries in the snow...

Snow tree...

Looking down from the tower...

The Avon and surrounding countryside from the tower...

Inside the theatre...

For more Stratford Upon Avon images see my post S is for...

The new Royal Shakespeare Theatre...

Went to the members' preview evening at the RSC last night, had a chance to take a good look around the new building which I like very much.  Antony Sher and Richard McCabe (amongst others) appeared on stage in a short masque, with Antony Sher giving Prospero's final speech from The Tempest at the end of it.  It was almost worth falling over on the ice and hurting my hip and thumb to get there (thank you Stratford Town Council!!!).  The lighting wasn't very good for photography (the light in the downstairs bar was reminiscent of a scene from Dante's Inferno) but I got a few pictures.

Words and images from the plays were projected onto the walls... 

 Looking down the staircase onto the fountain...

The covered walkway from the RST to The Swan... 

Inside The Swan... 

I did like these balconies in the RST - great views 

Inside the new RST

Busy, busy, busy!

It feels like I haven't stopped to think let alone sit down and relax this weekend.  Friday night we went to Stratford to see the RSC's Morte D'Arthur, which was an experience!  First the director Greg Doran came on and apologised for the fact they hadn't had time to do a full rehearsal as it was such a long play (it was on from 7.15pm until 11pm), and things did seem to keep going wrong techinically, and finally 15 minutes from the end Greg came back on and said he was stopping the performance as Sam Troughton who played Arthur had been taken ill.  He did look and sound awful - hope it was nothing too serious.  Visually the play was stunning, and the effects were so clever, well worth seeing.  The language is completely different to Shakespeare, none of the rich poetry, and the characters too are quite 'flat', but it really will be a wonderful production once they iron out the problems.

On Saturday we went to the Great Central Railway's World War II Event which was great fun.  Took quite a few photos and the only annoyance of the day was that as the event was spread over four locations, we had to pay £5 to go on the platform at Loughborough Station and another £5 to go into the event at Quorn Station too.  A bit steep methinks. It should have been £5 for the event, plus extra if you actually travelled by train.

A tree near the field where we parked - I just like trees

Lola Lamour, excellent 1940s style singer

World War II Nurse

Spiv

Shopkeeper

G.I.s

Today David kindly helped me with my fitness kick by coming on a 10km walk with me, and we did it in 1 hour 45 minutes!  I even had the energy to go shopping this afternoon and bought him a swiss roll in gratitude (he was shattered and had to go and lie down :O)), I also attacked two of our garden shrubs with shears (have probably killed them as I've no idea what I'm doing despite my Dad being a gardener), and pulled up some ornamental grass that was threatening to take over the front garden.  And tomorrow it's back to work...

Tony and Cleo...

As I'm at work on Tuesday for my birthday, yesterday was my birthday treat.  Cath and I went into Stratford, started with a posh breakfast then went up to the theatre for a behind the scenes look at some of the techniques used at the RSC.  They concentrated on movement and had people up on stage to show how they developed the scene for the battle of Actium in Antony and Cleopatra using paper boats and polonaise dance moves!  It was fascinating... especially as we got to see the final version in the afternoon as we went to the matinee performance.  Despite the seats in the Courtyard Theatre being enough to give you a square backside for the rest of the day, we really enjoyed it!  Excellent performances from the whole cast, especially the two leads, (although Harriet Walter and Patrick Stewart are still way out in front of everyone else in the roles - they just brought the poetry to life). 

I am too much i' the sun...

Well the title is slightly misleading. Amazingly for a Bank Holiday Monday there was some sunshine yesterday, and as I was left to fall back on my own devices yet again, I went to Stratford upon Avon. Had a lovely time - first breakfast, then walking around taking photos and finishing with a pot of tea at the Courtyard Theatre cafe. I also bought a signed copy of Keith Osborn's Something Written in the State of Denmark. A year in the life of an actor with the RSC - and what a year it was... The 2008-9 season saw Greg Doran's Dream, then his Hamlet with Patrick Stewart and David Tennant, and then Love's Labour's. Amazingly I saw all three and the book brought back many happy memories. That was a crazy year at Stratford - the frenzy that gripped the town as fans tried to get a glimpse of either David T or Patrick S had to be seen to be believed. Because so many actors can be seen in and around the town they can usually walk about without anyone bothering them, but not them. We actually saw David T in disguise once. My friend Cath and I were just coming out from the matinee of Dream when she frantically grabbed my arm and pointed to someone next to me; and there was DT wearing a baseball cap walking though the crowds in the foyer of the theatre to avoid the fans at the stage door. And no one else recognised him! Cath only saw him as she is rather short and was able to see under his cap. And we didn't give him away either... :O)

Lime Trees in Bancroft Gardens (note sunshine - but it was b****y cold!)

A swan of Avon

Blossom along the path in the RSC Gardens

More blossom - this time in the churchyard (Holy Trinity Church)

A dandelion! The close-up filter had to come out at some point...

Rain on its way... Luckily I was just heading back to the car at this point