Weekend...
Dec. 14th, 2008 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrph...well, ok, it's not over quite yet. But my plans for the remainder of the evening mostly involve bagels, revision and sleep, so...
Friday
...was supposed to be nice and simple. Leave work, get on a train to London, take it easy for the evening. However, I got distracted. What actually happened was that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jambon_gris turned up on my doorstep and we ended up ordering curry, drinking beer and watching Doctor Who DVDs. I hadn't seen Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead since they were first shown, so I'd forgotten just how creepy they were at times.
On the downside, this meant that I'd watched just under two hours of David Tennant...
Saturday
...and Saturday was the trip to go see his understudy, Edward Bennett, play Hamlet. Which was rather strange so soon after watching Tennant. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Went down to London on an early train, initiially heading forsouldier_blue's place to feed the infamous devil cat (as his owner was away for the weekend). Then the texts started. The thing about booking a theatre trip for 23 of your friends, based in various different cities, is that logistics can get complicated. About half of the mob had already collected their tickets. About the same number had decided to make a weekend of it and stay in London. Some of them weren't quite sure where the theatre was, either. So there were plans to meet, hand out tickets, socialise and so on...
...which started in St John Bread & Wine, afterlurkingcat and I met up and headed there for elevenses. I'd highly recommend their seed cake & glass of madeira - the cake slice is freshly baked and still warm when it arrives on your plate, and the madeira is a splendidly decadent drink to accompany a relatively dry cake. Elevenses also featured a very strange phone call from dmh - apparently miss_creation had informed him that he had to use a comedy voice when speaking to me...?
Then it was off to the Cartoon Museum to see the Giles exhibition, which was rather good. I'd seen some of his Family stuff - but not that much of it. I hadn't seen his earlier pieces, or his work as a war cartoonist. The section describing his visit to Belsen was more than a little bit chilling - he couldn't bring himself to create anything based on the camp; the the camp commandant was also pleased to meet him, describing himself as a fan...
It's an interesting little museum. Now I know where it is, I'm tempted to go back and look at some of the permanent exhibits as well.
Then we were off to the British Museum - or at least its lobby - to meet Elaine (WINOLJ), heading on to Pizza Express for a quick lunch, withdmh joining us just in time for dessert. There were quite a lot of texts from various people by this point, and my iPhone battery was starting to get a bit depleted...
...so the only sane course of action was to relocate to the bar at the Renaissance Chancery Court and drink cocktails. At this point people seemed to accumulate - I think we ended up withesran, naranek, misstemperance, lastaii and inulro , in addition to the previous attendees, but I may have forgotten someone. I hadn't actually intended this to turn into such a large gathering - it's just one of my favourite places (and definitely my favourite cocktail bar) in that part of London, and I'll seize any excuse to buy a vanilla mojito there.
Saturday night - Hamlet
Eventually, we wandered to the theatre. I've seen a few different versions of Hamlet - I used to see a lot of Shakespeare when my sister worked in the theatre business (set & costume design) - and I'm always a little curious about how plays get amended and reinterpreted.
This one was interesting. Shadows, lights and a mirrored backdrop setting the stage. Relatively modern dress - guns and helicopters, with swords only used for the final duel. They started it with darkness and confusion - a poorly lit stage and the guard's reflected lights partially illuminating the ghost. Come to think of it, almost everything was lit by lanterns. Sometimes bright, sometimes dim - but always shadows around the edges.
Edward Bennett's very good. He's obviously dealing with a staging that's written for Tennant - and you can almost see Tennant performing some of Bennett's scenes - but he's probably less manic and I suspect he's a little more menacing. I might be wrong about that last bit, mind you, as I didn't see the Tennant version.
Patrick Stewart is, unsurprisingly, also excellent. And Oliver Ford Davies, as Polonius, was also very good.
There were some problems, though - mostly with the audience, as late arrivals and coughing escapees caused the two rows in front of us to stand multiple times during the first half hour of the play. Not ideal.
...and there are some cuts. Horatio loses some stage time, and the final scene ends before Fortinbras takes control, hears what's occurred and orders Hamlet's funeral - instead, he just walks in and little is explained...
Very, very good though.
Friday
...was supposed to be nice and simple. Leave work, get on a train to London, take it easy for the evening. However, I got distracted. What actually happened was that
jambon_gris turned up on my doorstep and we ended up ordering curry, drinking beer and watching Doctor Who DVDs. I hadn't seen Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead since they were first shown, so I'd forgotten just how creepy they were at times.On the downside, this meant that I'd watched just under two hours of David Tennant...
Saturday
...and Saturday was the trip to go see his understudy, Edward Bennett, play Hamlet. Which was rather strange so soon after watching Tennant. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Went down to London on an early train, initiially heading for
souldier_blue's place to feed the infamous devil cat (as his owner was away for the weekend). Then the texts started. The thing about booking a theatre trip for 23 of your friends, based in various different cities, is that logistics can get complicated. About half of the mob had already collected their tickets. About the same number had decided to make a weekend of it and stay in London. Some of them weren't quite sure where the theatre was, either. So there were plans to meet, hand out tickets, socialise and so on......which started in St John Bread & Wine, after
lurkingcat and I met up and headed there for elevenses. I'd highly recommend their seed cake & glass of madeira - the cake slice is freshly baked and still warm when it arrives on your plate, and the madeira is a splendidly decadent drink to accompany a relatively dry cake. Elevenses also featured a very strange phone call from dmh - apparently miss_creation had informed him that he had to use a comedy voice when speaking to me...?Then it was off to the Cartoon Museum to see the Giles exhibition, which was rather good. I'd seen some of his Family stuff - but not that much of it. I hadn't seen his earlier pieces, or his work as a war cartoonist. The section describing his visit to Belsen was more than a little bit chilling - he couldn't bring himself to create anything based on the camp; the the camp commandant was also pleased to meet him, describing himself as a fan...
It's an interesting little museum. Now I know where it is, I'm tempted to go back and look at some of the permanent exhibits as well.
Then we were off to the British Museum - or at least its lobby - to meet Elaine (WINOLJ), heading on to Pizza Express for a quick lunch, with
dmh joining us just in time for dessert. There were quite a lot of texts from various people by this point, and my iPhone battery was starting to get a bit depleted......so the only sane course of action was to relocate to the bar at the Renaissance Chancery Court and drink cocktails. At this point people seemed to accumulate - I think we ended up with
esran, naranek, misstemperance, lastaii and inulro , in addition to the previous attendees, but I may have forgotten someone. I hadn't actually intended this to turn into such a large gathering - it's just one of my favourite places (and definitely my favourite cocktail bar) in that part of London, and I'll seize any excuse to buy a vanilla mojito there.Saturday night - Hamlet
Eventually, we wandered to the theatre. I've seen a few different versions of Hamlet - I used to see a lot of Shakespeare when my sister worked in the theatre business (set & costume design) - and I'm always a little curious about how plays get amended and reinterpreted.
This one was interesting. Shadows, lights and a mirrored backdrop setting the stage. Relatively modern dress - guns and helicopters, with swords only used for the final duel. They started it with darkness and confusion - a poorly lit stage and the guard's reflected lights partially illuminating the ghost. Come to think of it, almost everything was lit by lanterns. Sometimes bright, sometimes dim - but always shadows around the edges.
Edward Bennett's very good. He's obviously dealing with a staging that's written for Tennant - and you can almost see Tennant performing some of Bennett's scenes - but he's probably less manic and I suspect he's a little more menacing. I might be wrong about that last bit, mind you, as I didn't see the Tennant version.
Patrick Stewart is, unsurprisingly, also excellent. And Oliver Ford Davies, as Polonius, was also very good.
There were some problems, though - mostly with the audience, as late arrivals and coughing escapees caused the two rows in front of us to stand multiple times during the first half hour of the play. Not ideal.
...and there are some cuts. Horatio loses some stage time, and the final scene ends before Fortinbras takes control, hears what's occurred and orders Hamlet's funeral - instead, he just walks in and little is explained...
Very, very good though.
