8 Plays and a Movie

Saturday! Saturday was a long, wonderful day. It started at 5:15 when I crawled out of bed, taking my bedding with me, and walked to the tube stop where Cali, Kate, and I caught the first tube to Noel Coward Theatre where we got in line to buy tickets to Peter and Alice. For every performance they offer a limited number of sitting and standing tickets available day of (because otherwise it's sold out). People start lining up at 5:30, and we were among the first 10 or so. Let me tell you, bringing my bedding was the best decision I ever made. Yes, I looked homeless for like 6 hours (especially because I was in sweats and a sweatshirt, was wearing no makeup, and hadn't showered yet. Super attractive), but I wrapped myself up is a warm cocoon and took a 2 hour nap... in the middle of the sidewalk. It was wonderful. When I woke up I went across the street to McDonalds to eat and found out that in England they don't do anything besides breakfast sandwiches until 10:30... dumb. So I went to Eat. instead. I included my dietary information not because it's of any interest to you all, but because going to Eat. was on my London bucket list. I can now cross it off. Finally at 10:30 the doors opened (the doorman was so nice) and we got tickets! They were in the very back row, but we got to sit down. We headed back to the flat to shower and get ready for the day and all decided that after spending 6 hours looking... like we did... we wanted to dress up a bit for the matinee performance.

We clean up nice.

Peter and Alice was absolutely sensational. The only was I can describe it is "beautiful". There just really aren't words to express the emotions expressed in the performance. It was absolutely gorgeous. I can't stop raving about it to everyone. The acting was great and the story was magical. It was only 90 minutes long, but there was so much heart packed into such a small time frame. The story is about the girl who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland (played by Judi Dench) and the boy who was the inspiration for Peter Pan, who met at a Lewis Carroll exhibit. The play is an interpretation of what they might have said to each other when they met. Creative, honest, heartbreaking, beautiful. I was so impressed by it that after the show we went to a bookstore and I bought a copy of the script. It's truly one that I will be able to read and reread and be able to take something new from it each time. On our way home our tube passed through the Sloane Square station, which is where the man who was the "real life Peter Pan" threw himself in front of a train. It was particularly depressing after watching the play, but it reminded me of how well the performance was able to move me. Simple incredible.

After the play we went home and took a nap. That evening our class went to a performance of King Lear, which in reality was just called Lear because the role of Lear was played by a woman. I had mixed feelings about the performance. I loved the lighting and sound effects and the metaphors that were created in the atmosphere.

I felt like I was watching Macbeth...

The actors could have done with some more training. They had many great ideas that weren't fully developed or weren't able to be developed due to the inability of the actors. It was an interesting performance though. The theatre was super far away and it was really complicated to get to. On the way there we saw a bookstore where every book was 1 pound. I will definitely be going back there. I also had a dumb American moment on the way to the play. We stopped at a market for some food and I bought a bottle of orange juice. I didn't look at it very closely and started drinking it. It tasted weird, but I was thirsty. I gave some to my roommate who also thought it tasted weird, very potent. Eventually someone informed me that what I was drinking was, in fact, orange juice squash... which in American terms is concentrated orange juice. It's meant to be mixed 1/4 part juice to 3/4 parts water. I was then asked, "Didn't you read the instructions?" ... I'm sorry, I don't typically look for instructions when I drink juice. I was slightly worried that I was going to die, but after drinking my weight in water I calmed down some. We accidentally took the wrong train on the way home so we had to get off and switch, which was annoying since we were all so tired, but we finally got home and crashed.

For all you folks keeping track at home you'll notice we saw 8 plays in 6 days. We called this week "8 plays and a movie"... because we also watched a movie.

Mousetrap
Matilda
Chorus Line
The Tempest
Singing in the Rain
Billy Elliot
Peter and Alice
Lear