Balderdash and Piffle
Jun. 12th, 2007 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaitouAs you may know, I'm a total Shakespeare Slut. Badmouthing the Bard, (along with 102 Dalmatians) is one of the few things that get me frothing at the mouth. So what could be better than going to see a Shakespeare Play at the Globe? (Actually, it would be seeing Sir Ian McKellan as King Lear with the Royal Shakespeare Company...but tickets were all sold out.)
We woke up late that morning, thanks to the movie the night before. But we gathered up all of Flidget's stale bread and headed for Regent's Park. Regent's Park was very much along my lines of what an 'English Garden' looks like in my imagination. Lots of beautifully positioned flowers and fountains and well groomed symmetry.
And then there were the ducks. I'm serious man, these ducks and geese were birds of the devil. When I checked my photos later their eyes glowed red. Flidget was all like 'Let's go feed the ducks!' but now I realize that the bread was just an appeasement to the ducks, a distraction so that we could escape unharmed. It was like the deer in that episode of Marmalade Boy.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
exgentlemen knows what I'm talking about.
We had a good lunch of Curry and Mango Lassi's at a tiny hole-in-the-wall Indian place. The curry wasn't too hot and had a really nice citrus edge to it that I'm not used to.
Then we moved on to the Globe. Yee! Getting our tickets was no problem, and our seats were awesome. The Globe is a reconstruction made to be as accurate as it can be, which means that there are wooden benches to sit on, and you can buy a cushion for extra. Or you can stand in the Pit like the peasants of yore. I know that I probably should have done the standing, it's supposed to be the most immediate. But I am a weakling tenderfoot and my feet were sore already. And also, neither Flidget or I are particularly tall and I was afraid of being edged out and not being able to see. So instead we sat in the middle ring.
While everyone was getting their seats there was a small band of musicians playing period instruments. I was a little suspicious of the horn player, but the program I bought later explained that it was period too. The guy that I assume was the company's 'clown' came out to announce no cell phones or cameras...but the horn player kept interrupting what he was saying. It took me a few times, but then I realized that he was playing the Nokia ring tone, and I about died laughing.
The play we saw was Othello, which we covered in my Shakespeare class in College. I'm glad that I'd read it because it was a little hard to follow at first...everyone was talking so fast! But it really didn't take too long to get used to. The actors were all really good, but I think that the regular cast were a little bit better than their 'guest star' that played Othello. The clown was especially good, which is impressive considering that Othello doesn't really have much of a clown part. It's too bad they weren't doing a comedy at the time.
I was also really taken with the characters of Emilia and Rodorigo. Emilia I've always liked. She's strong and knows her own mind, and is not afraid to put any man in the play in his place. Rodorigo is the 'Red Shirt' of the play, he's just a pawn for Iago to get his way. I don't remember feeling any particular sympathy for him when I read the play. He's basically the same character as Sir. Andrew Agueface in Twelfth Night, the over-his-head-twit. But in this production I felt really bad for him. He's been led around by the nose, far away from friends and family, and then in the end he's killed by the person he thought was his only friend. Nobody knows who he is, or cares. And it really hit me hard in this production.
Desdemona's murder was hard to watch too. I knew it was coming, and she spent half the scene behaving Too Dumb to Live...but the actors really put everything into it. When she died it was frightening and hard to watch.
After the final lines of the play, they wheeled back the bed with all of the dead bodies heaped on it. Then they all came out and danced, bloodstains and all. I knew that the post-play dancing was a traditional part of Shakespearean theater but it still came as a surprise. A good surprise that kind of bounces your spirit back after seeing something sad.
I'd hoped to do a Jack the Ripper walk that night, if only to meet the tour guide who wrote a book about the Scotland Yard Investigations, but my feet decided against me. Despite all my preventions I managed to still get a couple of blisters on my feet.
So instead we went back to Flidget's flat and had Chicken and Mushroom pie. And I discovered that the British have made the Cadbury Cream Egg into both a candy bar and an ICE CREAM BAR. Truly this is a land of superior desserts. We watched Kung Fu Hustle and a great show called Balderdash and Piffle. Balderdash and Piffle is a show about the Oxford English Dictionary. The host tries to find the earliest usage of a word...earlier than what's in the OED. Then she presents this new information before a panel of serious and eerily underlit judges who decide whether or not this new information will be incorporated into the dictionary. Absolute Love.
We woke up late that morning, thanks to the movie the night before. But we gathered up all of Flidget's stale bread and headed for Regent's Park. Regent's Park was very much along my lines of what an 'English Garden' looks like in my imagination. Lots of beautifully positioned flowers and fountains and well groomed symmetry.
And then there were the ducks. I'm serious man, these ducks and geese were birds of the devil. When I checked my photos later their eyes glowed red. Flidget was all like 'Let's go feed the ducks!' but now I realize that the bread was just an appeasement to the ducks, a distraction so that we could escape unharmed. It was like the deer in that episode of Marmalade Boy.
exgentlemen knows what I'm talking about.We had a good lunch of Curry and Mango Lassi's at a tiny hole-in-the-wall Indian place. The curry wasn't too hot and had a really nice citrus edge to it that I'm not used to.
Then we moved on to the Globe. Yee! Getting our tickets was no problem, and our seats were awesome. The Globe is a reconstruction made to be as accurate as it can be, which means that there are wooden benches to sit on, and you can buy a cushion for extra. Or you can stand in the Pit like the peasants of yore. I know that I probably should have done the standing, it's supposed to be the most immediate. But I am a weakling tenderfoot and my feet were sore already. And also, neither Flidget or I are particularly tall and I was afraid of being edged out and not being able to see. So instead we sat in the middle ring.
While everyone was getting their seats there was a small band of musicians playing period instruments. I was a little suspicious of the horn player, but the program I bought later explained that it was period too. The guy that I assume was the company's 'clown' came out to announce no cell phones or cameras...but the horn player kept interrupting what he was saying. It took me a few times, but then I realized that he was playing the Nokia ring tone, and I about died laughing.
The play we saw was Othello, which we covered in my Shakespeare class in College. I'm glad that I'd read it because it was a little hard to follow at first...everyone was talking so fast! But it really didn't take too long to get used to. The actors were all really good, but I think that the regular cast were a little bit better than their 'guest star' that played Othello. The clown was especially good, which is impressive considering that Othello doesn't really have much of a clown part. It's too bad they weren't doing a comedy at the time.
I was also really taken with the characters of Emilia and Rodorigo. Emilia I've always liked. She's strong and knows her own mind, and is not afraid to put any man in the play in his place. Rodorigo is the 'Red Shirt' of the play, he's just a pawn for Iago to get his way. I don't remember feeling any particular sympathy for him when I read the play. He's basically the same character as Sir. Andrew Agueface in Twelfth Night, the over-his-head-twit. But in this production I felt really bad for him. He's been led around by the nose, far away from friends and family, and then in the end he's killed by the person he thought was his only friend. Nobody knows who he is, or cares. And it really hit me hard in this production.
Desdemona's murder was hard to watch too. I knew it was coming, and she spent half the scene behaving Too Dumb to Live...but the actors really put everything into it. When she died it was frightening and hard to watch.
After the final lines of the play, they wheeled back the bed with all of the dead bodies heaped on it. Then they all came out and danced, bloodstains and all. I knew that the post-play dancing was a traditional part of Shakespearean theater but it still came as a surprise. A good surprise that kind of bounces your spirit back after seeing something sad.
I'd hoped to do a Jack the Ripper walk that night, if only to meet the tour guide who wrote a book about the Scotland Yard Investigations, but my feet decided against me. Despite all my preventions I managed to still get a couple of blisters on my feet.
So instead we went back to Flidget's flat and had Chicken and Mushroom pie. And I discovered that the British have made the Cadbury Cream Egg into both a candy bar and an ICE CREAM BAR. Truly this is a land of superior desserts. We watched Kung Fu Hustle and a great show called Balderdash and Piffle. Balderdash and Piffle is a show about the Oxford English Dictionary. The host tries to find the earliest usage of a word...earlier than what's in the OED. Then she presents this new information before a panel of serious and eerily underlit judges who decide whether or not this new information will be incorporated into the dictionary. Absolute Love.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
CADBURY CREAM EGG ICE CREAM BAR?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Date: 2007-06-12 05:10 pm (UTC)Also big envy for going to the Globe. Envy envy.
Re: CADBURY CREAM EGG ICE CREAM BAR?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Date: 2007-06-12 08:08 pm (UTC)And Candy Bar! They have them all year round!!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-12 07:57 pm (UTC)Also? Awesome. Oddly, Othello somehow managed to avoid being a requirement in all the English classes I've ever taken, and it's one of the few big plays I've never seen (unless the very barest snippets from the movie adaptation of Orlando count, and I don't think they do) - but King Lear I have... and Sir Ian McKellan as Lear? I don't think I've ever squee'ed over a tragedy before, but...
Err. Anyway, these posts continue to be full of the win and all kinds of loveliness. Thanks for keeping up with them.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-12 08:06 pm (UTC)Othello is a good play, I mean, duh! it's Shakespeare. But I wouldn't put it as one of my favorite plays, or even tragedies. But Man, Iago's such a bastard.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 01:53 am (UTC)So, I hope it works out for you soon.