"And Let Slip the Dogs of War"
Aug. 9th, 2010 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dark_litanyMama and I were off to Stratford for the annual theatre trip that kind of seals the deal of whatever Shakespeare play I happened to be studying that year. Because, looking back on it, I kind of have studied at least one of S's plays every bloody year since Year 8 - God and I intended on never touching a Shakespeare play ever again upon reaching uni. I blame Richard Wilson for making them too damn interesting - like how in the first lecture of the 'Shakespeare's Tragedies' course he was all like "get your hands on Mel Gibson's 'Apocalypto' and watch it. That'll set the tone for the entire module." And then it was all "the sacrifice to end all sacrifices" and "first came human sacrifice, then animal sacrifice and finally symbolic sacrifice." Seriously, sometimes I wonder what the cohesive knowledge of an English student is supposed to be because we seem to go all over the place - sociology, psychology, history, politics, art theory, cultural criticism, linguistics, etymology, you name it, we probably have to read up on it.
But, yeah, went up to Stratford early in the morning (mama wanted to continue this unfruitful search for a pair of black trousers that don't make her look like a cancer patient - her words, not mine) to see Julius Caeser in the Courtyard Theatre. We were going for a matinée, so we walked about the town for a few hours, hustling past the huge gaggles of foreign tourists and school groups, and I managed to get my hands on that Sfx Anime Special I've been desperately looking for (because I am a certified geek) and a new set of headphones (because I've come to believe headphones don't like me very much). Once it was near one, we went over to the CT and milled about for a while - two guys had set up with a guitar and drum playing flamenco music and I bought a programme just to play the 'Spot the Casualty/Midsomer Murders/other miscellaneous terrestrial UK show actors' game. Brutus was very familiar and I kept squinting at him right up till the last act, wondering where I knew him from - he ended up being that actor from the BBC's Robin Hood. The one that goes around generally complaining and being a bit of a cowardly custard and wears something close to a sock on his head. Then, once finding that out, I couldn't unsee it - seriously, I ended up wanting to giggle, even when Caeser's ghost came along and gave him a stab. And the whole wanting to laugh thing wasn't very fair on the actor, as he was a very good Brutus - it kind of got to a point in the play where you weren't really sure who the villains were supposed to be.
God, sitting in the dark for four hours was rough, though. Seeing as my clock is completely fucked up at the moment (I woke up at four in the afternoon today, being some sort of bat and all), I only managed to get about fifty minutes sleep the night before and I really could have done with some cellotape to strap my eyes open. It helped, though, that there was a lot of trumpeting and battle shouts and a feral!Romulus to go around making loud animals and biting people. Plus, the play luckily isn't bogged down with a lot of contextual crap, so it's pretty action-packed past the first act. And mama made a point of nudging me in the ribs when she recognised a quote or she found someone in the audience particularly hilarious (she does this a lot when we go to the theatre). We were second row back in the Circle, so it made for a bird's eye view of anyone who happened to be napping down in the stalls.
Also, in geeky anime news, I've got through Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom (which was nicely paced and structured but didn't really make me want to hoard it) and Mononoke (which was druggy and surreal and full of wonderful Japanese folklore and made me want to hoard it if only Western licensors would get up off their arses), while I'm about half-way through Mushishi (and that boxset is looking horribly tempting, for all of being thirty-five quid on play.com) and Serial Experiments Lain, and have just started on Kurau Phantom Memory. So the geeky anime marathon goes ever onward!
But, yeah, went up to Stratford early in the morning (mama wanted to continue this unfruitful search for a pair of black trousers that don't make her look like a cancer patient - her words, not mine) to see Julius Caeser in the Courtyard Theatre. We were going for a matinée, so we walked about the town for a few hours, hustling past the huge gaggles of foreign tourists and school groups, and I managed to get my hands on that Sfx Anime Special I've been desperately looking for (because I am a certified geek) and a new set of headphones (because I've come to believe headphones don't like me very much). Once it was near one, we went over to the CT and milled about for a while - two guys had set up with a guitar and drum playing flamenco music and I bought a programme just to play the 'Spot the Casualty/Midsomer Murders/other miscellaneous terrestrial UK show actors' game. Brutus was very familiar and I kept squinting at him right up till the last act, wondering where I knew him from - he ended up being that actor from the BBC's Robin Hood. The one that goes around generally complaining and being a bit of a cowardly custard and wears something close to a sock on his head. Then, once finding that out, I couldn't unsee it - seriously, I ended up wanting to giggle, even when Caeser's ghost came along and gave him a stab. And the whole wanting to laugh thing wasn't very fair on the actor, as he was a very good Brutus - it kind of got to a point in the play where you weren't really sure who the villains were supposed to be.
God, sitting in the dark for four hours was rough, though. Seeing as my clock is completely fucked up at the moment (I woke up at four in the afternoon today, being some sort of bat and all), I only managed to get about fifty minutes sleep the night before and I really could have done with some cellotape to strap my eyes open. It helped, though, that there was a lot of trumpeting and battle shouts and a feral!Romulus to go around making loud animals and biting people. Plus, the play luckily isn't bogged down with a lot of contextual crap, so it's pretty action-packed past the first act. And mama made a point of nudging me in the ribs when she recognised a quote or she found someone in the audience particularly hilarious (she does this a lot when we go to the theatre). We were second row back in the Circle, so it made for a bird's eye view of anyone who happened to be napping down in the stalls.
Also, in geeky anime news, I've got through Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom (which was nicely paced and structured but didn't really make me want to hoard it) and Mononoke (which was druggy and surreal and full of wonderful Japanese folklore and made me want to hoard it if only Western licensors would get up off their arses), while I'm about half-way through Mushishi (and that boxset is looking horribly tempting, for all of being thirty-five quid on play.com) and Serial Experiments Lain, and have just started on Kurau Phantom Memory. So the geeky anime marathon goes ever onward!
