Love's Labour's Lost
Guess it's really time I got off my ass and posted about my day in Stratford-upon-Avon last week!
As usual, everyone looked at me like I was crazy when I admitted to my plan of going to Stratford for the day on November 6th. Alex was supposed to come with me, in fact he'd promised me, but when he figured out it would entail waking up at 5.30 am to go on a 2 and a half hours long train ride, queue up for tickets we might not get, all to see a Shakespearean play then catch the train back and getting home to London at 8 pm, he balked. I don't know why! He asked: "But if I don't come with you, will you go anyway on your own?" "Welllll.... yes!" Cue you're-so-crazy look. I have to admit I felt a teeeensy bit guilty, because he was housing me and my friend Chiara for free, we were only in town for 5 days and me going would mean one less day spent in his company... but we all know I'm shameless by now.
So I got up at 5.30, trying not to wake Chiara (we were sharing a room), and by 6 I was out of the house and on my way to Marylebone station. Thankfully there were no delays on the Tube so I was perfectly on time! I fell asleep on the train, but thankfully a member of the staff woke me up to check my ticket, just in time to alert me that I was supposed to change at Leamington Spa, the very next stop, to catch another train to Stratford. It was by then 8.45, and although the sun had risen, you wouldn't know it because of the very thick fog that surrounded everything. It was quite surreal waiting for the connecting train in silence, with other 15-20 people at least two thirds of which I'm sure were going to Stratford to see the play. There were two giggling teenaged girls dressed waaaay too well to catch a train in the wee hours of the morning, another girl with a A Midsummer Night's Dream bag, a woman who was skimming the Hamlet programme... :D We were all kind of looking at each other out the corner of our eyes, evaluating the competition to the tickets I imagine. I know I was!
When we finally got to Stratford, I immediately legged it to the Courtyard Theatre. By now, I know the town so well I could probably give directions to tourists without thinking to much about it. I had to hurry, because it was already 9.40 and I knew they only gave out the tickets for 16-25s before 10 o'clock. But I don't know how I could have gotten there earlier, short of arriving the night before! Well, turns out they only had one line for everyone, 16-25s and not, which was already going all the way out the door to the middle of the courtyard. I sighed and got in line, without much hope of getting a £5 ticket. To get out of my funk, since apparently it's my destiny to befriend fellow Whovians while standing in line, I noticed I'd seen the girl standing in front on me on the train that very morning, so of course I tried making conversation by saying: "...weren't you on the train this morning?". Yeah, I know. Lame. But thankfully she didn't think me mental (or maybe she did and she just humoured me at first) and we started talking! She's a lovely Russian girl and it turns out she has a lj too! Hello lizzy333! *waves* I'm so glad I met her, because not only it's so much better to go through these things with someone else (who holds the line if you need to go to the loo, or if you want to eat something...), but it was lovely to chat to her, and we found out that aside from our love for Doctor Who and David Tennant, we share a lot of other interests and fandoms, like Harry Potter (gosh, it had been ages since I'd talked about Snape and Slytherin characterizations!). While we were standing in line we saw tens of teenagers arriving who looked like classmates on an outing, accompanied by their professors, who went on a tour of the theatre and obviously had tickets to the performance. We ate our hands in envy. I wish my old high-school took such cool school trips...
Of course by the time our turn came, we were told there were no more tickets and were invited to sit down on the benches outside to wait for returns. By now I'm quite familiar with those benches. There were about ten people ahead of us, and I was starting to despair because we didn't have all day to wait like I did the last time for Hamlet, as LLL was on at 1pm and it was already 10.30. But thankfully we soon found out that most of them were waiting for tickets for the evening performance of Hamlet only, so our chances increased! We also made friends with a lovely woman that sat next to me, Jessica, a young mum who'd left her children with their grandma and had dragged her husband (lovely man!) to see "any performance with Tennant!". I don't know how, but we ended up talking about web piracy and how exactly we manage to watch Doctor Who from Italy and Russia respectively (both cursing about the uselessness of the BBC iPlayer as long as it keeps being only accessible from the UK), and about Recovery and Casanova and Learners, about how excited we are about Einstein&Eddington, and we tried to explain to her about fandom and internet communities. We commented on the politeness of the British population and the fact that they respect the line. In Italy, and apparently in Russia too, if you stop queueing even for the minute it takes to throw a wrapper in the bin, that's it, your place is gone even if you have someone else holding it for you, and you have to go back to the end of the line. Not so in the UK, to our mutual amazement. So, while lizzy333 and Jessica held my spot, I said I was going to the shop, "just to stretch my legs, not to buy anything". I was teased mercilessly when I got back with the LLL postcards, the LLL poster and a very nice canvass bag with a stamp of Joan of Pucelle from Henry VI. But... but... the Tennant in the poster was looking at me! And the bag was just too nice! *pouts*
We were getting closer and closer to the beginning, and we were starting to despair again, feeling colder and colder sitting outside in the morning drizzle (at least it wasn't raining full out...), and any sort of lunch looked more and more impossible, and as I had foregone breakfast too, my stomach wasn't happy... when finally lizzy333, a girl in line before her and I were called inside! We left Jessica behind without too much remorse... hey, as they say, all's fair in Love and War and Tennant's events... :P We were offered three tickets for £14 each, two in the stalls and one in the gallery, priority of choice according to our place in line. The unknown girl went first and got the best seat, front stalls if a bit in the back, and then went lizzy333, who chose the gallery seat, Row A Seat 2, first in the front row all the way to the side. I ended up with the worst one, stalls Row L Seat 78, all the way to the side in the back of the stalls and behind a column. But it was already 12.30 and I couldn't risk being picky could I, and hey, better for my wallet, right? We then rushed to the cafè hoping to find something quick to eat, as we both wanted to get to our seats as soon as possible, as we'd heard that the actors got on stage before the play began! We chose the soup-du-jour, and gobbled it down in a couple of minutes, smoking hot! Ouchie... but... by 12.45 we were in!
I sat down and I... kind of hated my seat but tried to look at the silver lining and all that. I got in! Next to me was an old lady who must have been an octogenarian at least! All wrinkled and tiny and sassy as hell. I loved her! And two seats over... were Jessica and her husband! Karma bit me in the ass, because apparently they got called just after we did, and got much better seats. Still to the side and back, but at least no columns... Oh well. I was too excited to mind much. I wipped out my camera, in the hope of snagging a couple of shots before the beginning of the performance, but I got glared at by two women who sat in front of me. Geez, I hadn't even done anything yet! Unfortunately my camera is crap at taking pictures in the dark, so I tried videoing and... I did manage to capture the moment when Tennant got on stage! But it's veeeery wobbly and crappy, so I don't know if I'll bother uploading it... would you be interested in seeing it? I got weak in the knees when Tennant finally got on stage, and the crowd went wild! He just strolled in, yawning and looking very rumpled and sleepy (aaawwww!!), and he laid down on a cushion and covered his face with the straw hat.
Then the play began in earnest.
I don't think I can convey with words what an amazing experience it was. Three hours straight of bent-in-half, flat-out LAUGHING MY SOCKS OFF! I think, blasphemy, but I think I loved it more than Hamlet! The response from the crowd was amazing, with spontaneous clapping bursting out every five minutes! At the beginning, the King of Navarre (a very good Edward Bennett, who played Laertes in Hamlet), to wake up Berowne he tugged the cushion from under him and Tennant's head plonked on the stage floor with a sound *THONK* Cue audience: GASP NO! OUCH! OW! Then later when he tried swinging the straw hat on to the tree, he missed and gave the audience the Tennant look equivalent of D'HO! Cue clapping. And then when he plays off the audience in the first row! I'd hear he's use the women in the first row to wink at and point out examples for his monologue, and he chose an old woman (who went as red as her scarf), then a MAN (hilarious!), then a lucky girl who got the Doctorish Tennant WINK (tm)!!! And during his monologue about Love, you could hear a pin drop.
I'm sorry, I'm afraid this isn't going to be a coherent, instructive critic review, others have done it much better than I ever could and I'm afraid the first part was very much a one-man show for me. I kept hopping on my seat, trying to see around the column to catch every possible glimpse of Tennant. And also, I'm not used to theatre being this... interactive! I was stunned! And reading the play I didn't expect it to be this funny and entertaining live! As this is the first production I've seen, I can't tell if it's just this team or if it's the norm, but I really really wish everyone could see it, because everyone would love it, and no one would ever again dare say that Shakespeare is stuffy and dull. This is said to be Shakespeare's wordiest play, but I found that a lot of the most hilarious moments were created with gestures and looks from the actors. And compliments to a brilliant, brilliant Joe Dixon, who played an incredible Don Adriano De Armado, with the funniest Spanish accent and attitude.
I loved the first part. I luckily had a perfect view of Tennant on the tree, and I loved to watch his expressions while I'm sure I was meant to be paying attention to Dumaine or Longaville or whoever had the center of the stage, but hey, they were behind the column. The whole scene where they're all spying on each other... when Dumaine takes a guitar out of a ginormous book and they all start singing in harmony! And then Berowne first tries to hold the high ground and is then found out and Tennant starts hopping all over the stage eating paper and trying to run away. I also thought that Nina Sosanya as Rosaline was very good, and of course she and Tennant have good chemistry together and played off the UST between the characters beautifully. And Berowne's character... he's a bit of a jerk, really, so it's good that it's someone so ridiculously cute and handsome as Tennant playing him.
In the pauses between the acts, I noticed that there were several seats (most MUCH better than mine) that were still unoccupied... so during the interval, I though, no harm in asking, so I dragged lizzy333 to speak to the Manager and we explained we were in seats with a restricted view (me with the blasted column, and all lizzy333 could see was the top of Tennant's head) and could we please, please move to some of the free seats? SHE SAID YES! We were aiming for the free seats in the Stalls, front-stage center, but they... kind of ignored that and offered us two seats a couple of rows in front and more to the center than were I was sitting. We tried enquiring about even better seats, but were basically told not to push our luck, so we didn't. Still, better than nothing! Thus for the second part, all I had to avoid to watch the performance was the big bald head of the frankly enormous guy sitting RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Oh well. We still got to enjoy £26 seats only paying half that. Not bad!
The actors went on being just as wonderful and funny and amazing after the interval. The Muscovites! Tennant with a fake ginger (heee ginger!) beard, and an even more ridiculous Russian accent! Ah, it was over so quickly... The old gentleman next to me said it will be a good long while before we'll ever see something as entertaining as that performance.
We did try to rush to the stage door, but ALAS! No barriers. AGAIN. I.e. he wasn't coming out. AGAIN. That's the second time it happens to me! A bit dejected, lizzy333 and I went back to the front entrance, where we scored autographs from Nina Sosanya, Mariah Gale and Oliver Ford Davies. I did ask a woman from the Staff whether they're considering doing a DVD, but the answer was a bit disappointing. She said it's not up to them, and that no producer has made any enquiries about it, and as there was only one week left in Stratford, it was highly unlikely they would come for LLL. She said maybe once Hamlet hits London... but alas, that means no LLL, which is truly a pity.
I was very sad to leave Stratford-upon-Avon for what could be the last time for a very long while, but luckily I had lizzy333 with me to keep me company and distract me on the long train ride back to London.
I'm probably rushing the ending of this entry, but I've been at this all afternoon and writing in English is tiring! lizzy333, have I forgotten anything?
EDITED to add a couple of very bad quality, very shaky and very blurry videos of David Tennant getting on stage. Blimey, it was dark, I couldn't lean on anything and my bloody arm was shaking I was so excited. But here you go.
As usual, everyone looked at me like I was crazy when I admitted to my plan of going to Stratford for the day on November 6th. Alex was supposed to come with me, in fact he'd promised me, but when he figured out it would entail waking up at 5.30 am to go on a 2 and a half hours long train ride, queue up for tickets we might not get, all to see a Shakespearean play then catch the train back and getting home to London at 8 pm, he balked. I don't know why! He asked: "But if I don't come with you, will you go anyway on your own?" "Welllll.... yes!" Cue you're-so-crazy look. I have to admit I felt a teeeensy bit guilty, because he was housing me and my friend Chiara for free, we were only in town for 5 days and me going would mean one less day spent in his company... but we all know I'm shameless by now.
So I got up at 5.30, trying not to wake Chiara (we were sharing a room), and by 6 I was out of the house and on my way to Marylebone station. Thankfully there were no delays on the Tube so I was perfectly on time! I fell asleep on the train, but thankfully a member of the staff woke me up to check my ticket, just in time to alert me that I was supposed to change at Leamington Spa, the very next stop, to catch another train to Stratford. It was by then 8.45, and although the sun had risen, you wouldn't know it because of the very thick fog that surrounded everything. It was quite surreal waiting for the connecting train in silence, with other 15-20 people at least two thirds of which I'm sure were going to Stratford to see the play. There were two giggling teenaged girls dressed waaaay too well to catch a train in the wee hours of the morning, another girl with a A Midsummer Night's Dream bag, a woman who was skimming the Hamlet programme... :D We were all kind of looking at each other out the corner of our eyes, evaluating the competition to the tickets I imagine. I know I was!
When we finally got to Stratford, I immediately legged it to the Courtyard Theatre. By now, I know the town so well I could probably give directions to tourists without thinking to much about it. I had to hurry, because it was already 9.40 and I knew they only gave out the tickets for 16-25s before 10 o'clock. But I don't know how I could have gotten there earlier, short of arriving the night before! Well, turns out they only had one line for everyone, 16-25s and not, which was already going all the way out the door to the middle of the courtyard. I sighed and got in line, without much hope of getting a £5 ticket. To get out of my funk, since apparently it's my destiny to befriend fellow Whovians while standing in line, I noticed I'd seen the girl standing in front on me on the train that very morning, so of course I tried making conversation by saying: "...weren't you on the train this morning?". Yeah, I know. Lame. But thankfully she didn't think me mental (or maybe she did and she just humoured me at first) and we started talking! She's a lovely Russian girl and it turns out she has a lj too! Hello lizzy333! *waves* I'm so glad I met her, because not only it's so much better to go through these things with someone else (who holds the line if you need to go to the loo, or if you want to eat something...), but it was lovely to chat to her, and we found out that aside from our love for Doctor Who and David Tennant, we share a lot of other interests and fandoms, like Harry Potter (gosh, it had been ages since I'd talked about Snape and Slytherin characterizations!). While we were standing in line we saw tens of teenagers arriving who looked like classmates on an outing, accompanied by their professors, who went on a tour of the theatre and obviously had tickets to the performance. We ate our hands in envy. I wish my old high-school took such cool school trips...
Of course by the time our turn came, we were told there were no more tickets and were invited to sit down on the benches outside to wait for returns. By now I'm quite familiar with those benches. There were about ten people ahead of us, and I was starting to despair because we didn't have all day to wait like I did the last time for Hamlet, as LLL was on at 1pm and it was already 10.30. But thankfully we soon found out that most of them were waiting for tickets for the evening performance of Hamlet only, so our chances increased! We also made friends with a lovely woman that sat next to me, Jessica, a young mum who'd left her children with their grandma and had dragged her husband (lovely man!) to see "any performance with Tennant!". I don't know how, but we ended up talking about web piracy and how exactly we manage to watch Doctor Who from Italy and Russia respectively (both cursing about the uselessness of the BBC iPlayer as long as it keeps being only accessible from the UK), and about Recovery and Casanova and Learners, about how excited we are about Einstein&Eddington, and we tried to explain to her about fandom and internet communities. We commented on the politeness of the British population and the fact that they respect the line. In Italy, and apparently in Russia too, if you stop queueing even for the minute it takes to throw a wrapper in the bin, that's it, your place is gone even if you have someone else holding it for you, and you have to go back to the end of the line. Not so in the UK, to our mutual amazement. So, while lizzy333 and Jessica held my spot, I said I was going to the shop, "just to stretch my legs, not to buy anything". I was teased mercilessly when I got back with the LLL postcards, the LLL poster and a very nice canvass bag with a stamp of Joan of Pucelle from Henry VI. But... but... the Tennant in the poster was looking at me! And the bag was just too nice! *pouts*
We were getting closer and closer to the beginning, and we were starting to despair again, feeling colder and colder sitting outside in the morning drizzle (at least it wasn't raining full out...), and any sort of lunch looked more and more impossible, and as I had foregone breakfast too, my stomach wasn't happy... when finally lizzy333, a girl in line before her and I were called inside! We left Jessica behind without too much remorse... hey, as they say, all's fair in Love and War and Tennant's events... :P We were offered three tickets for £14 each, two in the stalls and one in the gallery, priority of choice according to our place in line. The unknown girl went first and got the best seat, front stalls if a bit in the back, and then went lizzy333, who chose the gallery seat, Row A Seat 2, first in the front row all the way to the side. I ended up with the worst one, stalls Row L Seat 78, all the way to the side in the back of the stalls and behind a column. But it was already 12.30 and I couldn't risk being picky could I, and hey, better for my wallet, right? We then rushed to the cafè hoping to find something quick to eat, as we both wanted to get to our seats as soon as possible, as we'd heard that the actors got on stage before the play began! We chose the soup-du-jour, and gobbled it down in a couple of minutes, smoking hot! Ouchie... but... by 12.45 we were in!
I sat down and I... kind of hated my seat but tried to look at the silver lining and all that. I got in! Next to me was an old lady who must have been an octogenarian at least! All wrinkled and tiny and sassy as hell. I loved her! And two seats over... were Jessica and her husband! Karma bit me in the ass, because apparently they got called just after we did, and got much better seats. Still to the side and back, but at least no columns... Oh well. I was too excited to mind much. I wipped out my camera, in the hope of snagging a couple of shots before the beginning of the performance, but I got glared at by two women who sat in front of me. Geez, I hadn't even done anything yet! Unfortunately my camera is crap at taking pictures in the dark, so I tried videoing and... I did manage to capture the moment when Tennant got on stage! But it's veeeery wobbly and crappy, so I don't know if I'll bother uploading it... would you be interested in seeing it? I got weak in the knees when Tennant finally got on stage, and the crowd went wild! He just strolled in, yawning and looking very rumpled and sleepy (aaawwww!!), and he laid down on a cushion and covered his face with the straw hat.
Then the play began in earnest.
I don't think I can convey with words what an amazing experience it was. Three hours straight of bent-in-half, flat-out LAUGHING MY SOCKS OFF! I think, blasphemy, but I think I loved it more than Hamlet! The response from the crowd was amazing, with spontaneous clapping bursting out every five minutes! At the beginning, the King of Navarre (a very good Edward Bennett, who played Laertes in Hamlet), to wake up Berowne he tugged the cushion from under him and Tennant's head plonked on the stage floor with a sound *THONK* Cue audience: GASP NO! OUCH! OW! Then later when he tried swinging the straw hat on to the tree, he missed and gave the audience the Tennant look equivalent of D'HO! Cue clapping. And then when he plays off the audience in the first row! I'd hear he's use the women in the first row to wink at and point out examples for his monologue, and he chose an old woman (who went as red as her scarf), then a MAN (hilarious!), then a lucky girl who got the Doctorish Tennant WINK (tm)!!! And during his monologue about Love, you could hear a pin drop.
I'm sorry, I'm afraid this isn't going to be a coherent, instructive critic review, others have done it much better than I ever could and I'm afraid the first part was very much a one-man show for me. I kept hopping on my seat, trying to see around the column to catch every possible glimpse of Tennant. And also, I'm not used to theatre being this... interactive! I was stunned! And reading the play I didn't expect it to be this funny and entertaining live! As this is the first production I've seen, I can't tell if it's just this team or if it's the norm, but I really really wish everyone could see it, because everyone would love it, and no one would ever again dare say that Shakespeare is stuffy and dull. This is said to be Shakespeare's wordiest play, but I found that a lot of the most hilarious moments were created with gestures and looks from the actors. And compliments to a brilliant, brilliant Joe Dixon, who played an incredible Don Adriano De Armado, with the funniest Spanish accent and attitude.
I loved the first part. I luckily had a perfect view of Tennant on the tree, and I loved to watch his expressions while I'm sure I was meant to be paying attention to Dumaine or Longaville or whoever had the center of the stage, but hey, they were behind the column. The whole scene where they're all spying on each other... when Dumaine takes a guitar out of a ginormous book and they all start singing in harmony! And then Berowne first tries to hold the high ground and is then found out and Tennant starts hopping all over the stage eating paper and trying to run away. I also thought that Nina Sosanya as Rosaline was very good, and of course she and Tennant have good chemistry together and played off the UST between the characters beautifully. And Berowne's character... he's a bit of a jerk, really, so it's good that it's someone so ridiculously cute and handsome as Tennant playing him.
In the pauses between the acts, I noticed that there were several seats (most MUCH better than mine) that were still unoccupied... so during the interval, I though, no harm in asking, so I dragged lizzy333 to speak to the Manager and we explained we were in seats with a restricted view (me with the blasted column, and all lizzy333 could see was the top of Tennant's head) and could we please, please move to some of the free seats? SHE SAID YES! We were aiming for the free seats in the Stalls, front-stage center, but they... kind of ignored that and offered us two seats a couple of rows in front and more to the center than were I was sitting. We tried enquiring about even better seats, but were basically told not to push our luck, so we didn't. Still, better than nothing! Thus for the second part, all I had to avoid to watch the performance was the big bald head of the frankly enormous guy sitting RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Oh well. We still got to enjoy £26 seats only paying half that. Not bad!
The actors went on being just as wonderful and funny and amazing after the interval. The Muscovites! Tennant with a fake ginger (heee ginger!) beard, and an even more ridiculous Russian accent! Ah, it was over so quickly... The old gentleman next to me said it will be a good long while before we'll ever see something as entertaining as that performance.
We did try to rush to the stage door, but ALAS! No barriers. AGAIN. I.e. he wasn't coming out. AGAIN. That's the second time it happens to me! A bit dejected, lizzy333 and I went back to the front entrance, where we scored autographs from Nina Sosanya, Mariah Gale and Oliver Ford Davies. I did ask a woman from the Staff whether they're considering doing a DVD, but the answer was a bit disappointing. She said it's not up to them, and that no producer has made any enquiries about it, and as there was only one week left in Stratford, it was highly unlikely they would come for LLL. She said maybe once Hamlet hits London... but alas, that means no LLL, which is truly a pity.
I was very sad to leave Stratford-upon-Avon for what could be the last time for a very long while, but luckily I had lizzy333 with me to keep me company and distract me on the long train ride back to London.
I'm probably rushing the ending of this entry, but I've been at this all afternoon and writing in English is tiring! lizzy333, have I forgotten anything?
EDITED to add a couple of very bad quality, very shaky and very blurry videos of David Tennant getting on stage. Blimey, it was dark, I couldn't lean on anything and my bloody arm was shaking I was so excited. But here you go.