I have so much to write about! First of all, things in London have calmed down considerably since Tuesday night - the news link on the BBC webpage has changed its name from "London riots" to "England riots" and, most tellingly, has moved down from the top featured link to the third link on the page, below news about England's test cricket match against India. Instead of seeing pictures of people smashing windows and setting things on fire, the news is showing "broom armies" of locals cleaning up. It's heartening to see the local response, especially after all the anger (of the rioters, of the people against the rioters, of the people against the police, etc...) that was so evident earlier. Around where I am, in central London, the only signs of what's been going on is an increased police presence, especially in tube and train stations, so everything feels quite safe.
I apologize for not having written at all yet about my Shakespeare class! We had our last class today, which was quite bittersweet. Luckily this course was in the same classroom as my previous course, the 8th floor room with an amazing view. I was sad to sit in class today knowing that was the last time I could listen to a lecture while looking at Tower Bridge or the Eye. This sessions class has been great fun. The first week we focused on Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus as an introduction to the context and setting for plays in the early modern time.
We went to see a production of Dr. Faustus at Shakespeare's Globe on a Wednesday afternoon and then were lucky enough to get a presentation from one of the scholars who works at the Globe as a researcher to help the director and cast understand the play. I wasn't a huge fan of Marlowe's text - though it was the quickest read of all the plays we read, I found it somewhat archaic - but I really enjoyed the production at the Globe. We had tickets in the yard, which are only £5, but that means you're standing for the entirety of the play. Despite my aching feet, I liked being so close to the stage (even if you're at the back of the yard, you can be within 15 feet of the actors depending on the stage set-up) and I thought the production was exciting and well-constructed. That first week we also took a quick trip to the National Portrait Gallery, to look at portraits for many early modern figures including Shakespeare, Tudor royalty, and other contemporary figures.
The second week we read Much Ado About Nothing, spending class time talking about gender in Shakespeare's plays and re-writing our own endings to the play. We had tickets to see a production of Much Ado in Shoreditch at the end of the week, but there's currently a production in London of Much Ado starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate (two of the stars of the tv show "Dr. Who") at Wyndhams Theatre that I had read about, so I decided to try to get tickets for that. I asked at the theatre and was told to come to the box office at 10am, at which point I could pick up a ticket for the lottery at 10:30am. Every day they draw lottery tickets to give away 20 premium seats for £10 each. They told me that they normally have about 40-50 people vying for the 20 tickets, so I wasn't too hopeful about my chances, but I headed down a Friday morning to give it a shot. I picked up my lottery ticket (then headed to Laduree for a delicious morning macaroon so if I didn't get my ticket the morning wouldn't be a complete bust), and when I went back at 10:30 my number was called! I got to see the production that evening, sitting in the third row on the aisle. I was very pleased with the play - David Tennant was hilarious as Benedick, and the 80s themed production was very fun! During the costume party, characters dressed up as Indiana Jones, Darth Vader, and Mario; later scenes, especially Claudio and Hero's "stag and hen" parties, reminded me strongly of the Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo + Juliet. Overall, I found it an enjoyable and entertaining production. And thank goodness I went to see that show, since the production we went to go see for class (at the Courtyard Theatre in Shoreditch) was absolutely awful! The theatre was probably 90 degrees, which didn't help anything, and all the actors seemed to be under 25, which gave the production the feeling of a high school play. Benedick and Beatrice weren't a compelling couple in this production, and Claudio was almost abusive toward Hero. Most unfortunately, the setting was extremely dark and murky - completely opposite the tone of the play! Though the 3+ hour production was not my favorite, it reinforced for me just how much I liked the other production I had seen and reminded me how important performance is in how we appreciate Shakespeare's plays.
This past week we've spent looking at Richard III. Though quite long (it took me twice as long to read as I had expected), I liked the play, and I loved to production we saw. We were lucky enough to get tickets to Richard III at The Old Vic, a theatre just down the road from our apartments. I've wanted to see this show since I heard about it six weeks ago and after hearing several friends talking about how much they liked it and reading so many phenomenal reviews, I was so glad to finally be able to go! This production was directed by Sam Mendes and starred Kevin Spacey (the first time the two have worked together since they both won Oscars for American Beauty), and I thought it was a superb performance. Kevin Spacey was eerily creepy yet incredibly compelling, and the staging was quite inventive. Mendes did a great job of integrating the audience into the production, making us all feel a bit complicit in the tyrant's rise to power. Probably my favorite show I've seen in London! We also took a class trip to the Tower of London earlier in the week due to that location's prominence in Richard III as the site of the murders of Clarence and the
young princes. I haven't been to the Tower since I was little, and it was great to roam around
and imagine the play's characters imprisoned in those rooms. We also visited the Crown Jewels (which I found somewhat anti-climactic - hundreds of people in an incredibly long queue all funneling onto a moving walkway to be herded past the most valuable crowns), watched the beefeaters, and looked at lots of ornate old armor in the museum in the White Tower.
Though this class involved many more assignments than my Multicultural Literature course (one 2000-word essay for the first session vs. two 1500-word essays, a 2000-word presentation journal, and a 10-minute presentation for this course), I've actually really liked the work we've had to do! My first essay was a close reading of a scene in Much Ado and my second essay focused on the women in Richard III; my presentation this morning was on Shakespeare's sonnets (did you know that most of the sonnets, including "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?", are written to a young man?). I find that writing about Shakespeare helps me engage with the text in a way I might not otherwise necessarily achieve. It's been recommended to me that I should post some of the work I do while I'm here, so perhaps I'll include a post with my close reading essay (I know I got a good mark on that one - everything else was just due today so I don't yet know how I did!).
I can't believe I'm leaving London in just a few days! It doesn't feel at all like I've been here a full six weeks. Life will be so different not walking across Waterloo Bridge every morning (check out the street view on Google Maps of Waterloo Bridge: look carefully and on one side of the bridge you'll see the Eye and Big Ben, look the other way to find St. Paul's - this was my walk to and from class every day!). I'm heading to New York on Sunday to apply in person at the UK Embassy for a different type of student visa - since my summer school course at King's and my year of studies at UCL were over four weeks apart, I've had huge nightmares with figuring out my visa situation. Cross your fingers for me next week in NYC and let's hope the UK Border Agency will let me back in the country. Because everything with visas has to be as difficult as possible, I can't come straight back to the UK from New York (I won't be allowed to re-enter the UK until at least August 26), so I'm planning on traveling around Europe for a while and after a few weeks returning to the UK and hopefully visiting some places outside of London. UCL starts up on September 26, but I'll definitely be back in London by September 16th to do my orientation through UCL and the company that's facilitating my study abroad (an American company called API). I am so glad that I'm coming back to London so soon and that I don't have to cram everything I want to do into my last few days here!
