Long weekend in London
There is no greater tale of woe, than that of Juliet and her Romeo. Lija, Naomi and I went to see the Middle Temple production of Romeo and Juliet on Saturday. I think this is the third time I’ve seen it over here, but what I enjoy most is the artistic creativity where each company is able to put on a truly unique production.
The Middle Temple Hall almost sounds like something out of the Da Vinci code, and perhaps one day Dan Brown may write about it, because the hall was begun in 1562 and hasn’t changed since. The whole Temple area is rather amazing though, and the public are not usually invited in, because it is where all the magistrates and QCs reside. But the Barbican put on this production and it was quite good. Of course, sitting on ancient almost royal seats for three hours turns your arse into a plank, as one with the seat, but for a room which is usually a banquet hall it was well decked out with seats on three sides, although the performing area was longer than it was wide.
That was perfect because most of the cast were younger men so I think they had a great time sword fighting and almost knocking people’s heads off. The cast wore all white, and were defined as Capulets and Montagues by gold or silver fringing on their clothes. They danced, they fought, they loved and they died. Is there any simplier way to tell the story?
I used to have trouble with Shakespeare in high school – didn’t we all? But when you see his plays you gotta think this was one pretty cool guy. I mean, he could put a whole lotta words in one long soliloqy and it doesn’t mean squat, but then he could put out a one-liner and you could be happily elated or teary and sad.
A few funny things happened, like Juliet almost broke the balcony curtain and the friar kept losing his beads. The audience was such a mix – posh totties and street chavs alike.
Sunday was total confusion. Naomi got tickets to the Visa Olympics party for the handover of the Olympic flag in Beijing. We were celebrating it with a party in the Queen’s front yard. But it was badly organised and we ended up lining up for two hours before we could get into The Mall, and then we couldn’t get in to the stage area because there were too many people. Supposedly they gave out 40,000 tickets but only 20,000 could fit in that area, and the other 20,000 had to wait in The Mall area with big screens. Several people broke down the barriers a few times then Lija and I got in at about half three. So we watched the handover from the screens outside, where they lost the signal for a bit and most of the crowd was boo-ing rather than cheering.
When we did get inside the concert area we saw Scouting for Girls, McFly, and Il Divo perform, and Micheal Phelps was there but he got cut out mid interview because the Royal Arrows did their fly-over with red, blue and white smoke pouring above the crowd – now that was cool!
But that’s all I can fit in for now, because I’m almost packed and Lija and I are heading off to Spain and hopefully still 30-35 degree sun – now give me a woop woop!
Tags: Travel
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