The Edinburgh Bus
Since my last post, when things were at a very uncertain and low ebb, things have gone quite well here. I'm no longer stuck with the absolutely horrific English Literature degree course that I originally had; now I'm doing Classical Studies, which is far more interesting and enjoyable. As of this moment I'm doing Classical Literature (so copies of Homer's works that I bought at Newquay came in useful) and Ancient History, though am still lumbered with the tedious Christian Theology and Ethics outside course to make up enough points on the thingymajibbit. However, hopefully by year 3 or whatever I'll be specialising on my joyous classical things (which could include the Fall of Rome, Greek art, Homer's works, Greek philosophy and Roman Law).
I've made a fair few friends around here, including a group of people who live in an annexe just around the corner from me. It's very difficult to actually get to know anybody on the courses, though. My accommodation is rather nice; single en-suite room which was designed for wheelchair access, so it's massive and three times as large as my bedroom back home. The food is not entirely wretched either. All in all, rather good.
I ought to be doing far more reading than I actually am at present but most of the past few weeks have been spent at the Bedlam student run theatre, doing various workshops and the Fresher's play. Ah, indeed, the Fresher's play. Seven groups creating, scripting and performing a sketch each, supposedly inspired by titles of Shakespeare plays, most of which push and go beyond the boundaries of taste. I was in The Merry Wives of Windsor as Charles Windsor, a charming gent proposing to his lady love but who turns out to be a bigamist. Basically me looking aghast as various girls wandered on and made smutty puns, groped me, beat me up or burst into tears. And plenty of opportunities for me to talk to the audience. Performances went quite well overall. Monday and Tuesday were quite good, Wednesday was fantastic, Thursday I was off on my timing and then there was yesterday. Friday. The last performance. It's apparently a tradition for the last performance of the Fresher's play to be a complete mess, with the technicians playing jokes on the actors and everybody being drunk. The mini-directors took the cast out and got them sloshed, though they went too far as some people were too drunk to go on stage (including a French girl in our group, who came up to me and said "Do not worry, I am going to give you a big surprise," before promptly passing out; another girl took her place at the last minute and managed to beat me up very well). I, of course, was the only person boringly sober so was fearing the terrors of what would happen in our piece. Things altered, either by technicians or by the rest of my all-female cast, included:
- The basket which was meant to contain plates, tea-cups, a teapot etc. had now been filled with cucumbers (a running gag for the play) and contained two large metal weights meaning that I couldn't pick the thing up, much to audience approval, and owing to the lack of props most of the lines had to be cut or made up on the spot;
- cucumbers danced down from the ceiling on strings;
- the girls' theme songs as they entered the stage had been switched round;
- the first girl who came on rushed up and gave me a kiss on the lips;
- said girl also poured milk on me after the "Could I have a splash of cream, darling?" line, though I managed to get my own back by dousing her with it too;
- an American girl who was very drunk snogged me a few times and made certain that I noticed that her breasts were very nicely shaped;
- some technicians rushed on and pretended to hit me and succeeded in pouring another liquid substance on me;
- we now had a hot, lesbian kiss in the scene, which went down very well;
- and, to end it all, I was dragged down again and rubbed and kissed in various places.
All in all, quite a fun experience. I learnt that other sketches hadn't been tampered with nearly so much, either due to growing audience restlessness or because they didn't know how certain actors would react. Still, I enjoyed myself. Couldn't help it, really. And, if nothing else, I've got my face shown at the theatre. I'm going to have to check out the improverts, and some writers/performers for an occasional sketch show called News Offensive want me to do stuff with them, having read some of my sketches and seeing me "in action". I didn't get into any plays auditioned for this month but I'll keep trying there. And, in the mean time, I ought to do some work. Yes. I ought to.
Lego Star Wars 2 is a very fun game. Just so you know.
I've made a fair few friends around here, including a group of people who live in an annexe just around the corner from me. It's very difficult to actually get to know anybody on the courses, though. My accommodation is rather nice; single en-suite room which was designed for wheelchair access, so it's massive and three times as large as my bedroom back home. The food is not entirely wretched either. All in all, rather good.
I ought to be doing far more reading than I actually am at present but most of the past few weeks have been spent at the Bedlam student run theatre, doing various workshops and the Fresher's play. Ah, indeed, the Fresher's play. Seven groups creating, scripting and performing a sketch each, supposedly inspired by titles of Shakespeare plays, most of which push and go beyond the boundaries of taste. I was in The Merry Wives of Windsor as Charles Windsor, a charming gent proposing to his lady love but who turns out to be a bigamist. Basically me looking aghast as various girls wandered on and made smutty puns, groped me, beat me up or burst into tears. And plenty of opportunities for me to talk to the audience. Performances went quite well overall. Monday and Tuesday were quite good, Wednesday was fantastic, Thursday I was off on my timing and then there was yesterday. Friday. The last performance. It's apparently a tradition for the last performance of the Fresher's play to be a complete mess, with the technicians playing jokes on the actors and everybody being drunk. The mini-directors took the cast out and got them sloshed, though they went too far as some people were too drunk to go on stage (including a French girl in our group, who came up to me and said "Do not worry, I am going to give you a big surprise," before promptly passing out; another girl took her place at the last minute and managed to beat me up very well). I, of course, was the only person boringly sober so was fearing the terrors of what would happen in our piece. Things altered, either by technicians or by the rest of my all-female cast, included:
- The basket which was meant to contain plates, tea-cups, a teapot etc. had now been filled with cucumbers (a running gag for the play) and contained two large metal weights meaning that I couldn't pick the thing up, much to audience approval, and owing to the lack of props most of the lines had to be cut or made up on the spot;
- cucumbers danced down from the ceiling on strings;
- the girls' theme songs as they entered the stage had been switched round;
- the first girl who came on rushed up and gave me a kiss on the lips;
- said girl also poured milk on me after the "Could I have a splash of cream, darling?" line, though I managed to get my own back by dousing her with it too;
- an American girl who was very drunk snogged me a few times and made certain that I noticed that her breasts were very nicely shaped;
- some technicians rushed on and pretended to hit me and succeeded in pouring another liquid substance on me;
- we now had a hot, lesbian kiss in the scene, which went down very well;
- and, to end it all, I was dragged down again and rubbed and kissed in various places.
All in all, quite a fun experience. I learnt that other sketches hadn't been tampered with nearly so much, either due to growing audience restlessness or because they didn't know how certain actors would react. Still, I enjoyed myself. Couldn't help it, really. And, if nothing else, I've got my face shown at the theatre. I'm going to have to check out the improverts, and some writers/performers for an occasional sketch show called News Offensive want me to do stuff with them, having read some of my sketches and seeing me "in action". I didn't get into any plays auditioned for this month but I'll keep trying there. And, in the mean time, I ought to do some work. Yes. I ought to.
Lego Star Wars 2 is a very fun game. Just so you know.