This past weekend, Brian, Andrew, Courtney, John, Chris, and
I left for Stratford-Upon-Avon (Billy-land) to go see two of Shakespeare’s
works, King John, and Julius Caesar. King John was being performed by the Royal
Shakespeare Company (RSC), while Julius Caesar was put on by an all black
troupe from different parts of England.
On Friday, I had my last official day with the Giants. All
of the students got to meet with David Pickering, the coordinator (or technically
the CEO) of the Giants. He gave us a history of why he started the company, a
debriefing of how the Jubilee went overall, along with giving us certificates
signed by the mayor of Chester, thanking us for our work with the festival.
After saying my goodbyes with the staff, I hurried back home so I could pack my
stuff and catch the afternoon train to Stratford with Andrew. The trip overall
took 2 hours.
Now, back in high school, I was never really a big fan of
Shakespeare. Every year, we ended up reading some of his plays in class, and I
always, without fail, found myself getting easily bored, and would ultimately
go find the sparknotes for the play. (A win/win if you ask me. I could finally
I understand what I was reading, and I did well on the quizzes.) So, when we
first booked our tickets for the trip, I wasn’t exactly thrilled, but I figured
I would be missing out on the “British Experience” if I didn’t see at least one
of old Billiam’s plays. I definitely feel as if I made the right choice.
When we finally got there, Andrew and I met up with Brian,
John, and Cortney, and then made our way to the RSC Theatre for King John. The
RSC is divided into two large stages, the main stage, and the Swan Theatre.
Seeing that King John wasn’t a large performance, it was held in the Swan
Theatre. The theatre was really nice over all. It had 3 stories of wooden
seating, along with a stage that extended itself into the audience (a lot like the
one at Hendrix). Not too long after we found our seats, the show started.
I never read anything about King John before, but that didn’t make too much of a difference. The show was absolutely brilliant. For
this production, they decided to place King John in a modern day setting, which,
surprisingly, worked. It had all of the stereotypical Shakespeare plotlines going for it (royalty, death, misunderstanding, people losing their sanity, etc) but seeing the
Royal Shakespeare Company do it, was simply incredible.
You can tell that the actors who work in the RSC are truly
passionate about Shakespeare, and acting in general. They usually put on 3
plays per season, and each season usually has a theme. A few weeks ago, they
ended their “Lost At Sea” theme, which was when they performed Twelfth Night,
The Tempest, and A Comedy of Errors. The RSC is also so popular, that they have had
many famous actors perform with them (Patrick Stewart as Macbeth, and, for all
of the Dr. Who fans out there, David Tennet as Hamlet, along with many more
stars).
The next day, we met up with Chris, and then went to see
Shakespeare’s gravesite inside Holy Trinity Cathedral. While inside, we got a
brief history lesson from one of the workers about Shakespeare’s, and his wife
Anne’s lives. Since we had time to kill, we walked around the city, and through
a park that had statues of Shakespeare, and some of his famous characters. From
there, we headed back to the RSC for the viewing of Julius Caesar.
This performance of Caesar was put on by an all black troupe
from England. They decided to put the play in a modern day African setting,
which, like King John, gave a really interesting new spin to the play. Seeing
that this was one of the bigger productions for the RSC, it was held in the
main theatre. When we walked in, the actors were dancing around the stage, while the live African/Caribbean band appropriately
called “The Vibes Of March” played in the background. About 3 songs in,
everyone scattered from the stage, and the show started.
After the amazing performance, we did some souvenir
shopping, while getting to listen to the Vibes of March play in the café just
outside the theatre. While listening to the band, I started to read the program
for the show, and found out that several of the actors are, or have been actors
in various films. I later found out that 2 of them are going to be in the upcoming
movie World War Z (based off of the zombie book that I’ve been reading all
semester). Also, while listening to the band, one of the actors from the show
came out to talk to the public. I got him to sign my program along with getting
to talk to him for a bit. Apparently, he was born and raised in Savannah,
Georgia, but has been living in England for the past 30 years.
Shortly after, we left the RSC to catch our train back home.
Along the way, we stopped by Shakespeare’s house, which was, as Brian and Chris
put it, very Disney-fied. Even though it looked like a very fake version of the
original, it was still worth seeing. After spending some time around the house,
we then left for our train back home.
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