The Hollow Crown- LD25, September 27, 2015

After a long day of Stratford yesterday, you'd think we'd had enough of Shakespeare.

Apparently not.

Alexa, Olivia, and I met up with Nahome, Alex, and Charlie around 11 this morning to head back to Shakespeare's Globe. It was nice to get to explore it and the area more in the daylight- last time we went it was the evening-time. After grabbing a quick lunch, we got some great spots right next to the stage, as groundlings again, of course. But that's part of the experience!

The stage was newly painted/decorated- deteriorating gold

Yay Theatre!

It was, for some reason, surprising to go back to the Globe and see it decorated differently than it was for Measure for Measure, but I shouldn't have been surprised. It's a different show- of course it should have a different set!

One cool thing about this production was that they added a bit at the beginning of the play, where we see Richard's coronation as a young boy. Apparently, the play normally begins later in his life. It was a really nice addition that added to the themes they were hoping to get across about the questionable divine right of kings.

"For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground 
And tell sad stories of the death of kings; 
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they ahve deposed; 
Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of the king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits..." 

Cards on the table- This may have been the best production I've seen while in London so far. Act 1 was hard to understand (again with the histories!!) but after being told the jist of what happens, and thinking back on it, it makes much more sense. And then, in Act 2 (which was easier to understand), everything hits the fan and I started feeling so many emotions towards all the characters... I can't spoil it for you, but at the end of the show, I was tearing up. There is a character, the son of the Duke of York, who started out as quite a prat, to be honest. By the end of the show though... the actor did an amazing job. I felt so badly for him and could totally understand where his character was coming from, simply from how he delivered his lines and his very calculated gestures. And then there was Richard, who took on the role perfectly- his self-pity, work at being a king, doubt over his right to rule, and sorrow at his usurpation (that's not a spoiler- you need to know that if you're seeing this show). The show was phenomenal. Absolutely fantastic.

London friends, go see it!!!

We wandered back to the Landward, where I attempted to start on homework. I think I succeeded... there's a lot of work to do, both for school and around the apartment- it's a bit of a mess. The boys came back over for a little bit though to hang out and work on acting homework. Alex was helping me with my next monologue... it's really hard for me to do, for some reason, and I can't quite put my finger on why... Hopefully I'll get to run it tomorrow and figure that out.

Also, please pray. I'm on the tail end of the BADA plague/cold that went around, and it's moved down into my chest- been coughing like crazy. Prayers for health and recovery would be lovely! Thank you!

Fight on, friends.