Much Ado About Many Things

This is going to be my writing exercise until I can find something suitable to write about. Well, I have something to write about, I just don't want to write it now.

Yesterday was the first day of classes, and as morning dawned we were still missing 30% of the students on this trip. No matter, we had class anyway and got some ground rules explained to us. For every play of Shakespeare's (and one not--this being "War Horse") that we read we see the accompanying production someone in London/Stratford-Upon-Avon (Royal Shakespeare Company)/Oxford. And then we discuss it at length for 2.5 hours.

Yesterday was a lot of work after class. I had to go get a phone, which serves not only as my way of contacting the world, but as a watch because all of my other devices are still on New York time and there are startingly few clocks (besides Big Ben) in London. Then we went grocery shopping. My diet will consist of a lot of bread, pasta, and nutella. And some pesto. The store was a lot smaller than an average Super Market in the U.S. and carried practically none of the same brands. It was a small grocery store in general, though, because I've seen bigger here. But still, it's interesting to see the difference in foods.

Then after walking around in the rain for a bit later in the day for unrelated stuff, we went to see Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant as Benadick and Catherine Tate as Beatrice, which was amazing. Especially Tennant, who in addition to serious stuff knows how to do comedy and to play to (and interact with) the audience. He is an expert and it shows. My favorite scene was the one where Benedick is overhearing the prince and Claudio talk about how Beatrice loves him. There was a creative use of paint and a rotating set that allowed us to not only see the conversation (which was meant to fool Benedick; they knew the whole time he was there) but also to see the startled reaction from Benedick. And then his following soliloquy where he asks why Beatrice loves him, and why he should love her, and then his final interaction with her for that scene were hilarious and spot on. That moment of the play was one of the best. There was also an interesting use of U.S. navy-looking uniforms worn by the young men that didn't go unappreciated by quite a lot of audience members.

Unfortunately I missed both Tate and Tennant at the stagedoor because they were there for a brief time, and so I will be going back sometime soon. I did lose the people I was with though, and so had to make a 40 minute walk back to my flat, which is in an abandoned area during the day and which I knew I wouldn't be comfortable walking to alone at night. What I didn't realize was that most of the streets I would be on would be deserted of people and/or cars, and every store would be closed. That made things a bit eerier and by the time I got back I was extremely stressed. But then a group of flatmates and I took a walk and came back to hang out until pretty late/early depending on how you look at it.

So now here's me, with 4 hours of sleep and needing to read All's Well That Ends Well for tomorrow's production that we're seeing in the evening. The most tiring part (besides the no sleep) is the walking, especially to the flat, which is at least a 25 minute walk from any 'nearby' tube station. But it will put me in shape, I suppose.