By loving and favoritism, I of course mean having a crush on a fictional character.
...Come on, I can't be alone.... right?
It is grossly apparent to everyone who's known me through this past month how much I adore Hamlet. I do, and my explanations why probably aren't even eloquent or sound. I can't help it. These past 44 days I've been in London, I have slowly fallen in love with Hamlet as I've gotten to better understand and know Shakespeare and his plays.
As a result, it's the first play I think of whenever anyone wants me to work on anything. I keep referring to the select speeches and quotes from the play that I know, I finally got to work on a scene from it in my Shakespeare class, and Ian is letting me work on a soliloquy for my next tutorial because, let's be honest, I'll probably never have a proper chance to actually play the Prince of Denmark. But man, I love him.
Ahem. Anyways. How was your week, Rachel?
Last weekend was lovely, actually. I wrote about Friday, but Saturday, I spent the day with Olivia, Alexa, Karli, and the boys on a "Culture Crawl." We started with the National Gallery, and I got to see some new paintings and artists in addition to the ones I saw last time. I've discovered something really cool about myself: Monet is my favorite painter, and my favorite time period of paintings is... I think it's called Impressionism and Post Impressionism? It's the time starting around 1870-1920/30. I like art!!!
After a quick lunch, we went to the National Portrait Gallery, which was a first time for me. I actually enjoyed it more than the National Gallery. There's an awful lot to be learned about history there. Plus, each painting has an elaborate, sometimes very interesting story or place in history or both. I got to see the faces and portraits of a lot of figures I've read about or admired in history, like Aphra Behn, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelly, Queen Victoria, and Shakespeare, of course.
We had time after that, when we ended up walking down to Big Ben and Parliament, followed by Buckingham Palace. I did all that the weekend before, so I'm a bit disappointed in myself for jumping the gun when I could have seen all of these landmarks with friends for the first time instead of just seeing them all twice... At least I knew the way there?
We then went back to the Landward and enjoyed some birthday cake, because the whole day was an extension of Olivia's birthday, and the night ended many, many late hours later in the depths of deep, meaningful conversations. It was a really, really enjoyable evening, actually. One of my favorites since I've been here.
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| We had Alex take the picture. He hates being in them. |
Monday... feels like ages ago, to be honest. I had a tutorial with Ian that I totally bombed. I should've brought in my Midsummer Night's Dream monologue that I've been struggling with, in retrospect, but instead I tried to learn something new. Ugh. Stupid hindsight. I also went up for my scene in High Comedy, but that went well, and was assigned a scene from Much Ado About Nothing for Shakespeare class.
Which continues my discussion on crushes on fictional characters. Second to Hamlet, for me, is probably Benedick, from Much Ado. He's a boyish rouge, but quite charming. And very witty. And, of course, he doesn't die in the end. I like Much Ado very much, as a play.
Tuesdays are always nice. I didn't do much in Shakespeare, and I absolutely love Stage Combat, where we learned how to fall. As a consequence, I and my classmates are all still very, very sore. That night, we went to our next school-assigned show, Medea at the Almeidea Theatre. It's an adaptation of Medea, set in a more modern context. I'm not upset I went, but honestly, I feel very indifferent and overall unmoved by the production.
Yesterday was long, since we had four classes in a row and I was already exhausted from the previous days. The best part of the day was the end of it, where I came home, made myself a great dinner, blasted Disney songs, and then talked and hung out with the guys (who came for tea, of course) for a good long time before trying to get work done. I was feeling so utterly cheerful for the first time all day, then I ruined it trying to figure out my plans for our midterm break. I've got a great idea, but I haven't booked anything yet. A lot of the trip, if I want to stick to my plan, I'll be doing alone. I don't mind being alone, of course, but... for traveling around Europe like this, for a whole week, when I know other people will be too... it does feel a bit lonely. I may end up trashing the whole plan and just jumping on someone else's trip with them... but then I won't get to see half of what I want to... and that makes me almost equally sad. I still don't know what to do, but I was up way too late figuring all that out.
And finally, today.
I love my Thursday class schedule. My classes all went pretty well today- I was just exhausted all day. I really ought to get more sleep, since the coffee from the BADA canteen (cafeteria) doesn't last much longer than one class. Plus, I'm really stressed about the trips for the rest of the semester, our big auditions coming up in a few weeks, and, as always, the inevitable end of the semester which I wish I could delay for as long as physically possible.
The highlight of today, then, was going to the Odeon Cinema with my flatmates and getting to see the National Theatre Live screening of Hamlet, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role.
Behold: My favorite Shakespeare play starring one of my favorite actors as my favorite Shakespeare character. Best. Thing. Ever.
The show itself was far from perfect, however, we here at Flat 7 still think it was a very good production. I know I loved it, and not just because of Mr. Cumberbatch. The production design was fantastic- especially the use of light and the set. The other actors didn't stand out as either incredible or awful, which is good I suppose. But, for the most part, it was the most fun for me to finally see Hamlet all the way through on a stage. Even though it was still technically on a screen, it was still a screening of a theatrical production, and it was Live, and not stopping at any point for anyone. And that, to me, is a huge treat.
I love Hamlet. Was that too subtle? I love Hamlet.
I love his mind- that noble mind that the characters around him so often talk about. I love his humanity and those imperfections and facets of his nature and how much of him there is to explore. He's got a perceptive, though dark, way of looking at the world that sees situations and people as few others can. He's the most real character that I know of. I mean, yes, he's not a man of action, and he could have avoided all the trouble he got himself into had he acted sooner, but in his situation? I probably would have done the same thing. The way he thinks, in his soliloquies, is real. It's relatable. It's the depths of human thought that you'd never want to admit you had run through your head at any point ever- especially that infamous "To be, or not to be." He's got moments of lightness; you can tell that before his father's death he was the brightest, wittiest, most pleasant courtier and prince in Denmark. He can see right through people. He's a planner, though he can't stick with his plans (which is a little too relatable for yours truly). And, lastly, he's not to blame. Really, he's not. If Claudius hadn't pulled a stunt of vaulting ambition, like his friend Macbeth did over in Scotland, Young Hamlet wouldn't have had to be in the position he was in. If Claudius wanted to respectfully commit murder to become king, he should've had the sense to kill both the King and the King's immediate heir- not just marry his sister-in-law.
I'm really pleased with how much theatre I've seen this past month and a half. It's more than I usually get to see, of professional theatre, that is. It's giving me a great sense of what I like, what I prefer, and what, to me, makes good theatre. I'm learning a lot about myself through these plays.
Remind me later to stay up to date with my blogging, though. And please, pray that I figure out what I'm doing when I go on my midterm break in a few weeks.
Fight on, friends.
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