Once More Unto the Breach: Shakespeare Sunday

Despite the fact that Michael woke with a seriously nasty head cold on Sunday morning, we powered on because we had a date at the new Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. In fact, when we bought our tickets to Henry V months before departure, it was the first concrete plan we made for our vacation. Henry V is my favorite of the history plays, and about a month before our trip Michael humored me by watching the very fine Kenneth Branagh film adaptation.

We opted for front row seats on the upper tier. Certainly a more authentic experience might have been the groundling tickets, but we are definitely of an age where standing for hours on end in the sun or rain no longer holds appeal. So armed with tissues and cough drops, we climbed to the upper deck to await the play.

Not my photo - from the Globe’s website. 

Even if Henry V hadn’t been my favorite history play, we would have been intrigued with the staging, with many of the lead roles having gender reversal. Sarah Amankwah, the woman who played Henry, was absolutely captivating and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised for her to become a household name in the future.

Other than a very annoying seat mate who apparently felt the need to mansplain the entire play to his companion, we loved the experience.  We enjoyed a lemonade during the intermission and dove right back in. Unfortunately for the groundlings, that’s when the weather turned cold and rainy, so we were quite thankful for our covered seats - not to mention happy that we rented the cushions for our derrieres.

After the show, I had the marvelous good fortune of meeting up with an old friend from college. Marci is an architect who’s been living in London for well over a decade. She met us outside the theatre and we walked down to the Tate Modern together after lots of hugs and squealing.

Michael’s photo of a light installation reflected in the window

I confess that I didn’t have much use for the exhibits at the Tate, but the views from the top floor were exhilarating. Marci’s art and design background did help give context for some of the exhibits, which was interesting. After wending our way back down to the ground level, we took an Uber to the Shoreditch neighborhood so that Michael and I could see Marci’s studio, meet her husband Emory, and enjoy an early tapas dinner.

Shoreditch pedestrian area

The four of us ate scrumptious foods and drank a delicious wine and decided that we weren’t quite ready to part ways yet. So we wandered around the neighborhood for a while, with Marci and Emory pointing out interesting bits of architecture and street art. We decided that we were still hungry, so they directed us to their favorite Vietnamese restaurant. Despite having had tapas less than an hour earlier, we ordered broadly off the menu and sampled nearly a dozen dishes among us.

Two college chums, reunited

By 8:00, Michael’s energy was fading quickly so we parted ways with lots of hugs so that we could head home to Notting Hill, stopping first to get some nighttime cold medicine to ensure a good night’s sleep. After all, we had a big day coming up: boat ride on the Thames to Greenwich!

Which came first--the ABCs or Shakespeare?

(not my image--found online)

Yesterday was one of those nightmare retail days when the bizarro customers crawled out of the woodwork.  I'm not sure if Jupiter was misaligned with Mars, or if folks were just anticipating the next full moon, or if something was in the water, but every single one of us working at the counter had a customer tale to tell.  Here's mine:

Woman (while walking downstairs to the fiction & children's department): Hello?!  Is anybody there who can help me?  Hello?

Me (from behind the counter. You know, where I'm supposed to be): Yes, I'm right here.  What can I do for you?

Woman (looking around): Oh, there you are.  I'm in a rush.  Where is your Shakespeare section?

Me (walking around the counter to show her the exact shelf): It's right over here, arranged alphabetically by title.  Which one are you looking for?

Woman: Oh, it looks like he wrote a lot.  I don't know -- what do you recommend? 

Me: Well, are you thinking a comedy, tragedy, or one of the histories?  Or maybe you're looking for his sonnets?

Woman:  Oh, I think a history.  Do you have Hamlet?

Me: Well...yes, many people would say that if you're only going to read one Shakespeare play, Hamlet would be the one.  But it's not technically a history--it's a tragedy.

Woman: I thought it was history.

Me: Well, it certainly took place a very long time ago, so in that case I suppose you could call it historical, but it's definitely a Shakespearean tragedy.  Not based on actual history like his historical plays. 

Woman: Oh.  Well, I definitely want history.  What do you recommend?

Me: Well, I personally like Henry V, but it's the last book in a tetralogy, so maybe you'd like to begin with the first one, which is Richard II, which continues with Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2.

Woman: Ummm, I'll take Henry.

Me: Okay, which one?  Do you want to start with the first one, just take the last one, or do you want all three?

Woman: What about the middle one?

Me: Well, I personally wouldn't recommend starting with Henry IV, Part 2 because it would put you in the middle of things, but yes, you could do that. 

Woman (kneeling on floor in front of shelf): I'll take all of them.  Where are they?

Me (standing a little behind and to the side of her, peering over her shoulder): They're arranged alphabetically by title on that shelf.

Woman:  I don't see them.  Where are they?

Me: They're right there, under H.

Woman: Where's the H?

Me (tempted desperately to say, "It's usually after the G but before the I"):  Ummm...move your hand to the left a little.

Woman (pulling a book off the shelf): Is this it?

Me: Actually, that's Hamlet. Here, let me get down there and grab them for you. [I kneel down, grab three and stand up again, handing them to her.]

Woman: Are you sure these are the right ones? They all seem to look alike.

Me: Well, yes, they're all published by Pelican, so this edition will have a pretty uniform look to it.  But see, here on the front cover you can see the titles, and then if you turn the book sideways, you can see the titles on the spines, too.  [Glancing around to see if anybody else is witnessing this insanity. Hoping that maybe she's buying these as a gift for somebody else...] Would you like me to giftwrap these?

Woman: No, they're for me.  I'll just take them upstairs to buy, okay? 

Me (to my coworker, after the coast is clear): WOW.  Just wow.

Coworker (holding back laughter): Well, when I walked in, you did say it was shaping up to be one of those days!

Okey-dokey.  So, maybe this is a totally radical notion, but it seems to me that anybody who buys Shakespeare for herself should already have a working knowledge of, oh, the alphabet.  I'm just sayin'. 

Methinks she was an artless, idle-headed strumpet!

Things that make you go hmmmmm...