London Theatre Trip Day 2

After what felt like no sleep, we were up bright and early on Saturday, ready for a tour of the Globe Theatre. I don't know how many readers out there have been to the Globe, but I'm sure they'll agree that it's pretty neat, even if you're not a huge Shakespeare fan. So if you haven't been, and you get the chance to go, do it. It's also really cool if you're studying Shakespeare's plays in school, because you know what kind of theatre he wrote them all to be performed in. It aids a bit in your understanding of the stage directions used and the scene designs, etc. Of course, we all needed a dose of caffeine before we were ready to appreciate this, so we all hit the nearest Starbucks just before the tour started.

We struck gold with our tour guide - he was rioutously funny, extremely charismatic, quite flamboyant, and I believe he was also an actor. I didn't really hear that part of his commentary. My bad. Anyway, he was a far cry from the stuffy, boring tour guides that you often get on tours of places like the Globe. He had us all interested right from the get go. And I kid you not, he looked like Jim Carrey's long-lost twin.

So, the Globe. The one we toured is not the actual theatre that Shakespeare used, that one is <300 metres away and used as a carpark. The dust of Shakespeare's bones is shifting in his grave at this information. Or he might think that's hilarious, I don't know. The Bard was a weird bloke. The Globe was built over the course of several years in the 1900s, by a Shakespeare enthusiast by the name of Sam Wanamaker, who collected donations from individual people, families and businesses to build the place. It opened in 1997, after Wanamaker's death in 1993, and the names of the people and organisations who donated to the project are engraved on stones surrounding the theatre. That's as much detail as I'm going into, if you want more information, Google is your friend.

Just an idea of what the interior looks like

After the tour, we loitered for a couple of hours before a 2pm performance of Hamlet. Sticking with our trend for cheap everything, our tickets only bought us standing room, in the peasants' section, i.e. the floor. But that was okay, because we were right up against the stage, which is the best place to be, in part because you can use the stage as support when you feel like your feet are falling off from standing for so long.

I myself am not the biggest fan of Shakespeare, to be honest, and if I had to pick a favourite Shakespeare play, it would not be Hamlet. It's quite depressing, see. I think it's just a very long-winded way of killing off a whole bunch of people. Maybe the Bard was feeling ragey the day he wrote it, I don't know. Anyway, despite my lack of enthusiasm, I was thoroughly impressed by the performance the cast gave. The young guy playing Hamlet was particularly good. He brought a lot of passion to the role, and it made the character extremely engaging. The old school English was hard to follow at times, but we all got the gist of it.

The only negative thing I have to say is that we stood for three hours. Three hours. Three hours at a concert is not as much of a big deal, because you're full of adrenaline and jumping around all over the place. Concentrating on Shakepeare and standing still for three hours is foot homicide. A cute distraction was watching a very popular English teacher get excited about Shakespeare. You don't often see teachers having fangirl moments, so it was pretty neat.

So after we killed our feet, it was somehow decided that the best cure was a half hour walk. Nuh uh. Not cool. It gave us an opportunity to see more of the London skyline, but ohmygoodness it was tiring. The light at the end of the tunnel was dinner and a show.

I haven't talked about being in the land of amazing food yet, but I will tell you about this Japanese restaurant we went to. It's called Toku, it's on Regent Street (just a five minute walk from Piccadilly Circus station), and it's AMAZING. Easily one of the best dining experiences of my life. Brilliant food, exceptional service, and the staff are SO NICE. No joke. As we were leaving, every single employee said goodbye, and thank you. I was staggered. So if you're near Piccadilly Circus and you're hungry, go to Toku. You won't regret it.

Back to the education-enriching part of the trip. That night's show was The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre. Last year's school production was The 39 Steps, and many people on the trip were involved in it, so it was so cool to watch it done by the pros and compare it to how we'd done it. We all agreed that our characterization was better, but that's probably because we knew all the actors, and we could see little bits of them showing through. One thing that bugged everyone though, was the accent of Annabella Schmidt. She's supposed to have a German accent. The actress playing her somehow mixed French and Russian in there too. Very confusing. I'm still not sure if it was deliberate or not.

The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre

But despite that, it was still an excellent production. Four people playing I-don't-even-know-how-many roles. A lot, basically. Very entertaining.

Day 3 up next!

NOTE: No pictures in this post are mine. They would be mine, but I have ah, misplaced my camera (more about that later in a request I got today for a post about the recent Wengen trip). Credit goes to the lovely and talented individuals who took the photos (I'd credit them by name, but they're entitled to their privacy, unless I sourced them online, in which case, the source is credited).