The Shakespeariance!

lThis is my last weekend in Cambridge! I have a 10-15 page Ulysses paper due Wednesday and a >1000 word Shakespeare paper due Thursday then I fly home on Friday, arriving in Boston that night at 7 PM EST (I think). These six weeks flew by...

For our last excursion - meaning our last 2 hour trip on buses as a cohesive unit! - we went back to Stratford-Upon-Avon to look around and to see a performance of Hamlet. We saw Shakespeare's birthplace, the Shakespeare Family Homestead, and went for a boat tour of Avon. Stratford-Upon-Avon also contains seemingly thousands of character-named places like Cordelia (a pub). We passed a horribly tacky 3d-tour of Shakespeare plays called the Shakespeariance. I could not make this up if I tried, trust me. (We did not go on The Shakespeareance. We retain some dignity.)

Anyway, there was much excitement surrounding this production, because David Tennant - the current Dr. Who - AND Patrick Stewart of Star Trek fame both starred in it. (For those of us who like scifi things, this is a very exciting moment. Also, the player in the play-within-a-play representing Shakespeare himself looked MUCH like the King of the Cosmos from Katamari and nobody else on this trip had any idea what I was talking about. The King of the Cosmos - and that player fellow - looks like this.)

David Tennant was perfect as Hamlet! Patrick Stewart was a little bit flat as Claudius for my liking, but it was awesome anyway. I know I keep saying that each thing I do is better than the last, but this performance BLEW King Lear and Merchant of Venice out of the water. The actor who played Lear at the Globe was Polonius in Hamlet, and he was absolutely perfect. I don't think anybody in that entire audience disliked it. It's getting rave reviews all over England; critics are saying that David Tennant might be the quintessential Hamlet of the 21st century (so says our Shakespeare professors). The Courtyard, where we saw it, sold out the remainder of the run, and it moves to London in the fall. Tickets are as expensive as £100 and rising...

That's about it from here really. I promise you the British Food Entry is coming this week (I've been working on it!) and upon my arrival to the states I will write the British Language & Culture entry...because I know you're all waiting for it.

I hope all is well with you, and I'm looking forward to seeing you soon.