Globe Trotting

Today we had an English Lit trip to the Globe Theatre. It was reeeeeeally good! =)

The only thing is, it didn't stop raining all day. They should really put a roof on that thing!

We didn't actually get to see a play, which was a shame, but it meant that we got to walk around on stage during our tour of the theatre. I guess something like standing at the centre of the Globe Theatre's stage and delivering the line, 'To be, or not to be - that is the question' will be something to tell the grandchildren. ; )

On the way to the The Globe, we saw the Queen! (Yes, the actual Queen!). One of our teachers nearly got run over by her first motorbike escort. We turned around to laugh, and then another motorbike came along, followed by 2 sleek dark green Rolls-Royce limos, and the Queen was sitting in the back of the first one! We weren't on a main road at all. We'd been walking through a load of alleys and back streets that the teacher claimed were a short cut from Waterloo Station to The Globe. (Incidentally, he also claimed that it was only a 25 minute walk. We were jogging to keep up, and it was more of a wade than a walk to be honest, but I guess we can't realistically blame the weather on him as well.)

Anyway. We got there, eventually, and had a tour of the theatre, and then did an interactive workshop on the differences between Shakespearean and modern acting, and then more specifically about Hamlet.

We learnt a lot of really interesting things, but unfortunately I've forgotten most of them. (They may come back to me later...?!) One of them was that most of Shakespeares plays were only written to be performed about 6 or 7 times. He had no idea that hundreds of years later, they'd become known as some of the best plays ever written.

Also, the actors wouldn't receive a copy of the whole script, because copyright laws didn't exist back then, and Shakespeare didn't want people ripping off his work. He gave them each copies of their lines, and a cue to bring them in each time. The cue was only 3 words long! JUST 3 WORDS!!!! So they didn't really know what the play was about until they all got together and rehearsed it.

And thats another thing - because they had a different play on nearly every day, and Shakespeare's plays were always performed at 2 in the afternoon, the only rehearsal they could have was on the morning of the performance! (Apparently they couldn't practice in the evening, because actors like to go out and drink all night...so their morning rehearsals couldn't start too early the next morning either!)

Our lecturer/Globe actor/tour guide (the guy looking really surprised in the first photo) said that he thinks the fact that the Shakespearean actors didn't have copies of the whole script beforehand made the acting seem a lot more spontaneous, because when you went on stage, you didn't know whether you were about to be slapped, or kissed, or whether you'd have to stand there for 10 mins before being expected to deliver your first line.

I don't know if I could deal with that. But hey, maybe I'm just high maintenance.

Me and Phelan were planning to go on a literary pilgrimage and visit the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, so we could pay hommage to the likes of Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen (The Jane Austen Book Club came out on Friday! Haven't been to see it yet though...) but when we'd finally managed to get there, we discovered that it is closed on Mondays.

Though we weren't too depressed, because we'd seen a few entertaining things on the way there.

Like a giant spider outside the Tate:

(Don't worry - Phelan didn't get eaten!)

And lots of anti-busking signs:

(I won't upload them all, but to be honest, they were kinda the highlight of the whole trip...!)

And some modern art next to the Thames:

It was meant to be about noticing people (and realising how special and significant they are, realising their potential etc.) but we thought it was a bit obscure, so I decided to make it easier to notice people through it.
(I would just like to emphasise the fact that the modern art was not meant to be at all sexual. I know that's a novel concept, especially considering some of the other modern art on that stretch of the river, but you'll just have to trust me on this. I would not have put my face there otherwise. =P )

And some Storm Troopers on the roof of County Hall:

...maybe they heard that the Queen was out?!

And a Scottish man with bagpipes on Westminster Bridge:

He was very friendly, but practically made us promise to go to Edinburgh University if we get accepted there, on the basis that it's 'the best in the world for medicine'. Well....it's not, and neither of want to do medicine, and we've only visited it - neither of us have actually applied there - so we could quite happily promise, as we are both confident that we won't get an offer from there.
He was still a nice man though. =)

And Big Ben:

And some nutters protesting opposite the Houses of Parliament (no offence if you were one of them...we loved your masks and coordinating outfits. Obviously very well planned):

They totally hogged all the limelight, so the poor people protesting about Iraq got no attention at all.

Then after that we got to Westminster Chapel and saw that it was closed, and decided to go shopping on Oxford Street instead. And we didn't really see anything else interesting. The lights were pretty though. =)