Time and the Bard

It seems strange that we can spend hours at the grounds of Stourhead, but we have to rush through Chatsworth. Or that we run to certain things in Liverpool without the time to see the Beatles side of the city, but we had an overabundance of time to explore Bath. It seems just to be the problem that comes with scheduling trips with a large group and a short amount of time. Luckily we had plenty of time in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, hometown of the great playwrite William Shakespeare.

The unusual part of this day trip was our late start. We weren't scheduled to leave until noon, as opposed to our usual departure time of seven or eight in the morning. We then drove two hours by coach to the town where we toured the birth homes of Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway. I liked the tours very much. The guides were entertaining and informative with trivia about the origins of certain phrases like 'the upper crust,' which derives from the way they would cut bread. The Englished kept using Roman style pizza baking ovens long after the departure of the Romans from the isles. This method would leave the bottom of the bread mostly burnt and the top perfectly done. Rather than cutting the bread downwards, they would cut it side to side, the bottom for the servants and the top to the most important guests. Hence the 'upper crust' is the most desirable, most wealthy.

After the tours we had two hours to explore the town and have dinner. The town was very quaint as many of the buildings are in the Tudor style, some original but some faked. Katie, Allie, and I went around the shops, then to dinner, and then we spent the last hour walking around the graveyard of the church where Shakespeare was at first baptised and at last buried. Then we rejoined the group to see one of the Bard's plays performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The play was Love's Labours Lost, starring David Tennant, a favourite actor of mine and the star of the British series Doctor Who. I was so excited to be in the same "room" as him. Granted I was at the bottom of the upper balcony, but the view was clear and not too far. The costumes were grand, and in the Elizabethan style. The set was beautifully simple: a black stage with black reflective walls at the back, and a tree with bits of green glass hanging down as the leaves on the branches. The acting was absolutely incredible. David Tennant was hilarious as the King's wittiest lord, Berowne. The play has an unusual ending for a Shakespeare comedy, as the men are left without getting the girls, only a promise that they can try again after a year of monk-like study and fasting. But the production handled it well, with an incredibly beautiful last song and a bit of puppetry with it. The song was about a cuckoo and an owl, and as the stage was bathed in dark blue, they had a puppet owl fly once around the stage as the two main lovers, Berowne and Rosaline, share one last look and the lights fade out completely.

Apart from the ending, my favourite part was from the end just before intermission, where one by one Berowne watches from up in the tree his fellow lords and king break their oath to study for three years and not go near women. The men have fallen in love with a visiting princess and her ladies who have business with the king. The funny part about the scene is that each lord hides and watches the next come and reveal his love to the audience, thinking themselves in private. When the last comes, they one by one reveal that they have been watching, thinking to avoid being caught himself. Only Berowne was not seen, and it was so funny to see him gloating about keeping his oath, when we as the audience knew that he had broken it before all of this. Then it was even funnier when this was also revealed. I think I spent over half of the play laughing, and the rest still smiling. You can see some pictures from the production at this site.

To sum up, I loved the trip to Stratford. I only wish that I could see the RSC's production of Hamlet with David Tennant as Hamlet.