London Theatre: Part Two

4 were amazing. 1 was terrible.

Are you ready?

Broken Glass (Tricycle Theatre)

I'm a strange person. I can usually tell within the first few minutes of a play if I'm going to love or hate whatever I'm about to see. This play was no exception. There Matt and I were, sitting in the front row of this small theatre when all of the sudden, all the lights shut off, we hear a loud noise and BAM....the play begins. I turned to Matt and said, "I love this play. I already love this play." Broken Glass was written by Arthur Miller, one of America's greatest playwrights. It's not one of his better known plays, but no matter. The plot centers around a married couple, in their 50s, in the late 1930s. They are living in New York and news of the Holocaust has just begun to make headlines. Sylvia, the wife, has lost feeling and control of her legs. Basically, she spends all of her time in bed or a wheelchair. However, doctors can find nothing physically wrong with her and determine that her inability to walk has to be psychological. This play was fascinating. There was not a bad actor on stage and the script was just so gripping! What was even more fascinating was the design of this show. The set consisted of walls, making up three sides to a room, which were covered in peeling paint, and several bare, hanging light bulbs. Every scene change was perfectly choreographed and accompanied by live cello music, being played by a musician, sitting on a platform at the back of the stage, lit by a single spotlight. The dark, ominous music played while the actors took their time during the scene changes, always staying in character, never rushing off into the wings. It was beautiful. Everything about this play was beautiful. If you can't tell by this long paragraph, I LOVED THIS PLAY.

Design For Living (The Old Vic)

You'd think that a play involving adultery, cheating, lying and polyamorous relationships (relationships between more than two people) would be a sickening, awful play to sit through. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Design For Living, written by Noel Coward, was the first pure comedy that I've seen since arriving in London (The 39 Steps doesn't count, because it was a farce) and my goodness, what a show! I haven't laughed that hard during a play in a long time. Like I said, the plot centers around three people, two men and one woman, all in love with each other. But it's not a love triangle. Gilda loves both Otto and Leo. Leo loves both Otto and Gilda. Otto loves both Gilda and Leo. Is that confusing? Well, that's the play. What's so interesting about this play is that it's written in such a way that you couldn't possibly dislike any of these characters! Yes, in essence, what they are doing is terrible, but the whole plot is so darn enjoyable! Noel Coward is a genius. The director of this play is a genius. The play was three hours long. Three acts. And not once did I glance at my phone to check the time. Not once was I bored. That is a true testament to how wonderful this play was.

House of Games (Almeida Theatre)

We knew that eventually, the day would come. The day we would see a bad play in London. We knew our streak of good shows couldn't last forever, and sadly, it ended with this one. This play is an adaptation of a screenplay written by David Mamet, who is a very good playwright. This just goes to show that you should not mess with a good thing. AKA, don't adapt Mamet! Yuck, yuck, yuck. That's what this play was. It was just bad. I didn't like any of the actors. The script was extremely predictable. I knew how everything was going to play out in the first scene. In contrast to Design For Living, this play was barely over an hour and a half and it seemed to go on forever. Do you want to know the plot? Well, listen up LOST fans. Do you remember that episode where, in a flashback, Sawyer meets and attempts to con a woman, but she catches him, asks to learn about conning, so he teaches her, and ends up conning her in the end anyway? That was this play. But bad.

Deathtrap (Noel Coward Theatre)

We almost didn't make it to this one. Matt and I were riding the Piccadilly line (the tube) to Leicester Square and at a stop on the way, we hear an announcement that someone has been pushed onto the tracks and been run over by a train. Awesome. Our train was stopping here, and all trains on the Piccadilly line were being terminated so they could take care of this incident. The problem was, we were still several stops away from our destination. The only thing to do was get out and take a bus. However, everyone on the Piccadilly line had the same idea. The buses were as packed as sardines, but we managed to squeeze onto one and rode all the way to Piccadilly Circus (during rush hour too). At this point, it was 7:15 and the show started at 7:30. We finally agreed to get off the bus and run. This would have been a brilliant idea, had I not been wearing HEELS. Not just any heels, the Ralph Lauren stilettos that my friend, Dalton bought me for my birthday. So we've got Matt, thinking he knows where he's going, about 6 feet in front of me and we've got me, running like Elle Woods mixed with Carrie Bradshaw, yelling at Matt that he's not going the right way. FINALLY, we found the theatre, tore through the lobby, about four minutes late, were lead to a room with a monitor to watch the first bit before they could seat us, and eventually collapsed in our seats. And out came Jonathan Groff.

Jonathan Groff plays Jessie St. James on the hit TV show, Glee. He was also in the original Broadway cast of Spring Awakening. In short, he's a hunk. Estelle Parsons was also in this play. She won an Academy Award for her supporting role in Bonnie and Clyde and played Roseanne's mother on the old TV show, Roseanne. We were in the presence of celebrities. But enough about that, let's talk about the actual play. We'd seen dramas and we'd seen comedy, but now were seeing a thriller. And boy, was it thrilling! Deathtrap is about murder. It involves an older playwright, so desperate to keep a good reputation and publish a new play, that he would kill for it. This play had a big twist, one that I did not see coming at all. The script was smart and the actors were spot on. Very good play.

Prince of Denmark (The National)

I saw this play this afternoon, rather spontaneously. Today was the last show and I woke up and said, heck, why not? I went to the theatre, only to be told that the performance was sold out, but I could wait and hope that someone wouldn't show up. Luckily, a man heard me ask for a ticket and very kindly gave me one of his, telling me that his friend wasn't able to make it. I reached for my wallet to give him the 5 pounds that the ticket cost, but he protested that I didn't need to pay him. What a nice person. And more free theatre!

If you haven't already guessed, this play was about Hamlet. As a teenager. Played by teenagers. The play was produced by The National Youth Theatre and the plot was centered around Hamlet, Laertes and Ophelia about ten years before the play, Hamlet, takes place. Everyone in the cast was under 18. I was a little wary going into the play, thinking I was about to see a lot of awkward acting, but of course, The National can do no wrong. These kids were awesome. The boy who played Laertes really impressed me, and it was very cool to think that these kids are going to be the next big stars in London. Hooray for kids in theatre!

Thus concludes my second London theatre review.

Don't you just love New York in the fall?

I don't know. I've never been to New York in the fall. Meg Ryan clearly loves it, so I'll make it a priority to go at some point in my life.

HOWEVER, I love London in the fall. About two weeks ago it became necessary to start wearing a coat while outside. Many people would probably frown at this change, but I love the cold weather! In fact, we had our first seriously cold day this past week. When I say "seriously cold," I'm not exaggerating at all. It was 28 degrees at night. Fahrenheit, not Celsius. I decided right then and there that if it was going to be this cold, it was time to pull out the Christmas music. My mother will disapprove, but I don't care. I needed Josh Groban singing "Silent Night" and I needed it right then!

This past Wednesday night, Matt and I went to a concert. Months ago, we found out that one of our favorite musicians, Jay Brannan, would be in London while we're here and we had to get tickets! The concert was so enjoyable. It was in a bar in Camden, an area of town we hadn't previously discovered. It was a pretty small concert. There couldn't have been more than 200 people there, which made the whole experience so much more enjoyable and relaxed than concerts usually are. Jay Brannan is a singer/songwriter who writes very chill, acoustic guitar/piano tunes and he puts on a great show! We were lucky enough to be able to meet him and snap a quick picture before we left. Definitely a night I won't forget.

Remember how I complained in my last post about London lacking good Mexican food? Well, fear not, readers. I have found a solution. I have found...Chipotle. CHIPOTLE. IN LONDON. It's sad how exciting all of us Americans were over this discovery. Last night, we hopped on a bus and went down to Tottenham Court Road to partake of some Mexican deliciousness. And it did not disappoint. True, the portion sizes were probably about half of what they are in America (This is why we're so fat, people!), but it was Chipotle! Spicy chicken, pico de gallo, guacamole...etc. etc. And I didn't even mention the margaritas. It was heaven. We left completely satisfied. I didn't think my night could get any better until I came home and found out that Imogen Heap will be doing a concert in London on November 5. I whipped out my debit card and immediately bought tickets. There was no way that I was passing up an opportunity to see that wonderful musician in concert!

Apart from concerts, Chipotle trips and several theatre excursions (which will be talked about and reviewed soon), I've kept pretty busy with classes. I already told you about my "Intro to Arts and Culture" class, but I never mentioned anything about my other classes, did I? On Monday I also have "Reading Women: Gender and Genre." It's about different genres in literature that are typically dominated by males and how these genres are approached by women. For instance, right now we are reading a novel called "Lady Audley's Secret." It's a type of sensation fiction. The class is....interesting. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. It requires a lot of reading and so far, I haven't enjoyed the novels. Let's hope it gets better. On Wednesday I have my favorite class, "Writing Contemporary Britain." This class involves exploring the works of modern British writers, as well as a few modern British playwrights. So far, every play or novel that I have read has been fascinating and we haven't even reached the titles I'm most excited about yet. "London Theatre in Performance" is on Thursday. This class sounds right up my alley, huh? Go see a play, come to class and talk about the play. That's the entire concept of this class. Doesn't it sound amazing? Well, it would be if the people in the class, as well as the professor, actually knew anything about theatre. I've come to discover that should someone have an opinion that is different from our professor's, she will give said student (usually me or Matt, because no one else talks) a condescending look and continue to spout her own opinions. It's quite annoying. I truly don't think that she has ever studied theatre. I think she's just seen enough theatre to consider herself an expert. She also comes to class in jeans, a t-shirt and Converse. It's very unprofessional. The upside to this class is that most of the plays we are required to see are at smaller, lesser known theatres, and had I not been taking this class, I would not have seen some of the amazing shows that I have been able to see. Like I said, I'll be updating my theatre reviews soon. I've got some amazing ones coming.

I wish I could watch the Rangers game tonight. And I don't even like baseball.

One Month Down

I've been in London for exactly one month, folks.

It has been a whirlwind month. I've seen a lot, but I still have a long list of things to do and see.

I'm going to Dublin, Ireland in two weeks to see Andrew and Annie. We'll be spending our Halloween partying it up Irish style.

Annie and Andrew are coming to visit us in London in November. Three words: Harry. Potter. Premiere.

Then I am flying to Amsterdam on Thanksgiving to spend some time with a very dear family who I have known for many, many years. I'm glad I'll be spending my first major holiday away from home with people I consider family.

Now that I've been here for one month, I feel entitled to do some sharing. Here are some neat lists that I made...

THINGS I DON'T LIKE ABOUT LONDON

-Tube strikes. This happened a couple of weeks ago. It was terrible. The streets were jam packed. It was like the apocalypse had happened.

-Nothing is open 24 hours. Grocery stores close fairly early, which is a problem when I realize at 9:00pm that I have no food for dinner.

-The complete absence of Mexican food. I've made up for this by cooking my own.

-It costs me 5 pounds to do laundry. That's $7.50.

THINGS I LIKE ABOUT LONDON

-Public transportation. It's great. You always have a way home, no matter what time of day it is.

-The weather. It's been very cool this week, with temperatures in the 50s during the day, which I am more than happy about. The rain hasn't been too terrible either.

-The amount of culture that has been packed into one city.

-THEATRE. ALL THE TIME. And free theatre, because the English government wants younger people to be cultured. Woot!

-The drinking age is 18. I really don't go out to pubs a lot, because I'm trying to save as much money as I can, but it's still cool to be able to do it. Along this line, England has cider, which is like beer, but tastier. It's girlie beer.

-People here say, "Cheers" instead of, "Thank you." Awesome.

-There is always something to do.

-I only have each of my classes once a week. I have a lot of free time.

-It's beautiful. The architecture is astounding.

FUNNY ENGLISH WORDS OR PHRASES

"Cheers"....Thank you

"Trousers"....pants ("Pants" is underwear. Don't get them mixed up.)

"Quid"....pounds (English dollar)

"Lift".....elevator (I've picked up on this one, for some reason.)

"Queue".....line (It's both a noun and a verb. While Americans say they are "standing in line," English say they are "queuing.")

"Bin"....trash can

"The States".....USA

"Chips"....thick french fries

"Fries".....skinny french fries

"Crisps"....chips

"Biscuits".....cookies

OTHER INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT LONDON

-Some cafes (like Starbucks or a sandwich place called Pret a Manger) will charge you extra if you want to "eat in," rather than "take away." I just always tell them I want things to go and then eat there anyway. No one has ever told me not to.

-Instead of popcorn, theatres sell ice cream at intermission.

-People think that it's strange not to add milk to tea.

-Fresh food expires rather quickly here. For instance, if you buy a loaf of bread, the expiration date on it is usually only a few days away. We either have to eat our food fast or freeze it all.

-There are no sales taxes. Well, technically I think there is, but they just go ahead and include it in the price of whatever item you're buying. So when something is priced at 12.00, you pay 12.00.

-If you don't hustle in the tube stations, you will get run over, pushed out of the way, or scolded. I have become one of those people who will not abide slow walkers. Actually, I've always been like that.

Barbara Billingsley died today. RIP, June Cleaver.

This has nothing to do with London.

Like the title of this post says, the following has absolutely nothing to do with London. However, I had something that I wanted to write, to be preserved forever, and I must admit that I just really like blogging. I've tried to keep a journal several times in my life and have rarely been successful. Typing is more fun. Plus there are pictures.

One of my friends wrote a note on Facebook listing her top 15 favorite films. I've seen a lot of people write the same note and I wanted to do it too...but with a little more flair. After a long and painful process, I finally narrowed my giant list of favorite movies down to 15, including my favorite quote from the movie and a picture, because it's fun. The movies are in no specific order, although it should be noted that the first will always hold the number one spot.

Finding Neverland

“Porthos dreams of being a bear, and you want to shatter those dreams by saying he's *just* a dog? What a horrible candle-snuffing word. That's like saying, "He can't climb that mountain, he's just a man", or "That's not a diamond, it's just a rock." Just.”

Dead Poet's Society

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”

A Single Man

“A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.”

The Breakfast Club

“We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all.”

An Affair to Remember

“If you can paint, I can walk! Anything can happen, right?”

When Harry Met Sally

“I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

An Education

“The life I want, there is no shortcut.”

Singin' in the Rain

"Make 'em laugh!"

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around every once in a while, you're going to miss it.”

500 Days of Summer

“This is a story about boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story.”

White Christmas

“Vermont should be beautiful this time of year. All that snow.”

Garden State

“If nothing else, it's life. It's real and sometimes it f*ckin' hurts, but it's sort of all we have.”

Love Actually

“If you look for it-I've got a sneaking suspicion, love actually is all around.”

Pride and Prejudice

“You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I...I lo...I love you.”

Beauty and the Beast

“Tale as old as time, tune as old as song. Bittersweet and strange, finding you can change, learning you were wrong.”

Enchiladas for dinner tonight. :)

Paris Photos

Four Americans in Paris

"She's one of those third year girls who gripe my liver...You know, American college kids. They come over here to take their third year and lap up a little culture...They're officious and dull. They're always making profound observations they've overheard." -An American in Paris

I'm proud to say that although I am "one of those third year girls" that Gene Kelly's character speaks of, there were absolutely no profound observations made on my trip to Paris whatsoever. That could probably be attributed to the fact that my group spent most of our time laughing and singing. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I should have started this post writing about the very beginning of my weekend.

It began promptly at 3:30am on Friday morning. Most college students would just be climbing into bed at this hour, but I was wide awake and ready to go. Our train for Paris was leaving at 5:25am and because we had to leave so early, none of the Underground trains were running. We were forced to take a night bus. Sadly, they are nothing like the Knight Buses in Harry Potter. We got to the train station in plenty of time, found our seats and settled in for a fairly short trip. It should be noted at this point that during this train ride I accomplished something amazing. I fell asleep. For a whole hour! I didn't think it was possible, but lo and behold, it has been done! It probably won't ever happen again.

Our train got into Paris at 8:50 and by 10:00, we had made it to our hostel. Hostels are interesting places. For those of you who have never stayed in one, you're really not missing much. Hostels are simply very cheap hotels, usually occupied by students who cannot afford somewhere nice to stay. Annie and I shared a room with two other girls and the room consisted of nothing but two bunk beds and a sink. That's it. The beds were uncomfortable and squeaked ridiculously loud. Seriously, if I so much as blinked it would go, "SQEAKKKKK." But you get what you pay for, and we didn't pay much.

Finally, we met up with Annie and Andrew, who had gotten into Paris the night before, and we made a quick plan. We decided to grab some lunch and head towards Notre Dame. We did a lot of walking this weekend. A LOT of walking. I think my calves are now fully toned and my feet will probably never recover. Goodness gracious. Anyway, as we walked, we talked and laughed and snapped a ridiculous number of photos. Well, I snapped a ridiculous number of photos. The others contained themselves a little more than I did. It was so nice to be in Paris with three of my best friends. Matt and I remarked later that we could not have picked better travelling companions than Annie and Andrew. We're all so easy going that we got along perfectly. I had been desperate for some girl talk, and thankfully, I was able to chat and giggle with Annie, something I haven't done for a while. ANYWAY, we got to Notre Dame and we were able to go inside and ogle this huge cathedral for as long as we wanted. And ogle we did. It is possibly the most gorgeous cathedral I have ever been inside and I could easily have stayed there for hours, just sitting and marveling at the design of the building. Afterwards, we made our way to Luxembourg Gardens, a place we had heard of, but knew little about. Once we got there, I recognized the place from movies. The gardens are full of trees, some scattered about and some in perfect columns, all with leaves that are just beginning to change colors, which is quite a sight to behold! We walked around for a while, but eventually it was time to head back to the hostel to check in. We dumped our stuff in our rooms and decided to go the Louvre.

Ah, the Louvre. Let's talk about the Louvre. The Louvre is gargantuan. The Louvre is overwhelming. The Louvre is amazing. The Louvre is terrible. We had no idea what we were getting into. We spent about two and a half hours there and barely saw 1/3 of the museum. The building is an intricate maze of rooms containing paintings, sculptures, figurines, jewelry and every other kind of art you can imagine. Many times I found myself staring at the architecture of the building itself more than the actual art inside. It was beautiful! We saw the Mona Lisa, the statue of Venus, the giant statue of the Sphinx and many, many other objects. Then we got lost. We found ourselves stuck inside this one wing of the building with no earthly idea how to get out. Our map was no help, of course, and the longer it took for us to get out, the more exhausted we felt. We'd reached that point where everything we said was funny and we began walking through rooms without even looking at the art. We were that desperate to get out. After what felt like ten years, we stumbled out of the Louvre only to remember that we had to go all the way back through the building to get to our Metro stop. It had been a long day. We found dinner and drinks and fell into our beds, falling asleep in no time.

We began our second and last day in Paris with a trip to a cemetery. It sounds weird, doesn't it? But don't be too quick judge, this cemetery was special. This was where Jim Morrison, Moliere, Oscar Wilde, Frederick Chopin and Edith Piaf are all buried. The graves in this cemetery were crazy! So many of them stood several feet tall above the ground and had all kinds of carvings and engravings on them, many surrounded by flowers as well. Following the cemetery, we hopped on a train and rode over to the Arc de Triomphe. The arc is surrounded by the biggest roundabout that I have ever seen, with no clear path to the middle of the circle. We thought about playing our own version of Frogger, in true George Costanza style, but then we found the underground path to the middle, which didn't have death written all over it. We walked around, took a few photos, or in my case, ten million, and moved on. We walked down the Champs Elysees and promptly stumbled upon a farmers market! We had decided the previous day that we wanted to have a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower and this farmers market was ideal for supplying our food! We bought some cheese, fruit and wine and with groceries in hand, we made our way towards "le Tour Eiffel." After staring at the structure for a long time out of sheer amazement, we sat down in the shade and had our picnic. It was glorious! The weather was perfect, not too cold or too hot, and the sky was that lovely shade of blue that always signifies a good day.

We lounged in the grass for a while, talking about our time in our prospective cities, London and Dublin, and then decided it was time to ride to the top of the tower! Then came the waiting. And the waiting. And more waiting. First we had to wait in line to buy tickets. Then we had to wait in line to get on an elevator. Then we waited for another elevator. Finally, we were at the top and my goodness, it was worth it! I have pictures galore and they do not do this view justice. It was breath-taking. Please, I beg of all of you, visit my Facebook page and take a look at these photos!

It was getting later in the day and there was only one thing left that we wanted to do. After a dinner of pizza and margaritas, we came upon the one, the only....Moulin Rouge. The nightclub on which the movie musical is based! Sadly, we couldn't find Ewan McGregor. It was insanely expensive to actually go to a show, so we were quite content to sit in a cafe and just look at the outside of the club. We talked, laughed, told stories and sang "Elephant Love Medley" until we were too tired to go on. This morning we woke up early enough to go out for a final meal of Nutella crepes and then we parted ways at the train station. Andrew and Annie flew back to Dublin and Matt and I took a train back to London. It's strange how quickly this city has become home to us. When we got back to our neighborhood, we both let out a sigh. It's comforting to be back here, where we know our way around and don't have to worry about speaking the same language as those around us.

Final thoughts on Paris? Well, the stereotype that all French people are rude simply isn't true. I don't think we encountered a single person who was unkind to us. Although our French consisted of the few simple phrases that I remembered from high school, the people we spoke to were quite accommodating and forgiving. The food was delicious, the sights were amazing and the company was unmatched. Paris? Quite a success.

This post was far too long.

London Theatre: Part One

I have now been in London for three weeks. In these three weeks I have managed to see five plays. Not bad, huh? I'm pretty much living the theatre major's dream.

I thought about writing one giant overview and review of every show that I end up seeing at the end of my time here, but that would be extremely long and I don't think anyone would read it. Instead, I decided to write about the plays in groups of five. Now that I have reached five, as of today, it's time for an update!

Let's begin!

The 39 Steps (West End)

This was my first London play and an excellent one to start off with! For one thing, TCU bought the tickets, which is just kind of awesome. Free theatre! The 39 Steps is a farcical comedy, meaning there was absolutely nothing serious about this play at all. It was complete hilarity from start to finish. The play is based on a novel by the same title, which was then made into an Alfred Hitchcock movie and the script is actually taken directly from the novel, but made to be a comedy, instead of a drama. The play was full of Hitchcock references which were wonderful, despite the fact that I didn't get most of them. Except for the North by Northwest references. The cast consisted of only four actors, three men and one woman. The woman plays three different roles and two of the men play at least 15 roles each. True talent, right there. I have no idea how they keep up with which character they're playing throughout the play. It was quite impressive. Basically, this show was a riot and very enjoyable.

Blood and Gifts (The National Theatre)

Before coming to London, I was told by two of my theatre professors at TCU to see every single show at the National. Every. Single. Show. I have heard that this theatre can do no wrong. The reason for this is probably because it is funded by the English government. That's right, funded by the government. As in, the government pays for everything! Therefore, they have a large budget for set, costumes, sound, etc. They can also afford to bring in big name actors and directors and as a result of all these factors, the plays are really stinkin' good. Needless to say, I was stoked to see this play.

The plot is about an American working for the government during the 1980s, trying to get information about Russia from Afghanistan. In exchange for information, Afghanistan demanded weapons. The play spanned over a length of about 20 years and involved numerous characters, American, Afghani and Russian alike. I must admit that for part of the play, I was a bit confused, mostly because I know so little about this time in history. However, the play was excellent. Very well acted, with an amazing set and light design. The only complaint I had was that the second act could've been cut about 15 or 20 minutes shorter. I will definitely be going back to the National.

Les Miserables (West End)

I already wrote a lot about this show in a previous post, so I won't say much here. My expectations for this show were extremely high, given all the hype that I have heard about it, provided by both the media and my friends. Every expectation was met. I was in the very last row, in the highest balcony and I did not care one bit. If you ever see a show with me and see me lean forward in my chair, it is a sure sign that I am really into whatever is happening on stage. I spent the entirety of Les Mis nearly on top of the people in front of me. I had only ever seen a student production of this show, which was both edited and shortened, so I'd never had the complete Les Mis experience. It is truly an amazing show. I'm going to go out on a limb here and claim that the set was the best I have EVER seen. I can't even describe it in writing. The songs are beautiful and the voices singing them were mind-blowing. Wow, wow, WOW. I could gush about this show forever, but I'll stop now.

The Big Fellah (Lyric Theatre)

I'm taking a class called "London Theatre in Performance" which requires me to see about ten different shows at varying theatres. This show was the first. I knew absolutely nothing about this play before seeing it, which I kind of enjoy. Without any knowledge, I have no expectations, which is a good thing. The plot of this play was about several Irish-Americans who are part of the IRA, attempting to do whatever the IRA did years ago. This was another case of Laura being slightly lost during the show because Laura knows nothing about Ireland. However, when the actors mentioned "Bloody Sunday," I perked up. Bloody Sunday! U2! That, I know! Sort of. Anyway, throughout the plot, the FBI was somehow being informed of the goings-on in the IRA and the majority of the play involves the characters attempting to lie low in both their jobs and their personal lives. The show was very good, apart from one actress, who had the worst American accent I had ever heard. I think, emphasis on the word think, that she was attempting a New York accent. Nevertheless, it was very distracting and I didn't care for her acting either. I also didn't care for the nudity in one scene. Completely unnecessary to the scene and very uncomfortable, especially because I was sitting in the first row. Hello, actors!

Henry IV, Part One (The Globe Theatre)

This was another play that I was very excited to see. Mostly because I was seeing it at THE GLOBE. The replica of the theatre at which all of Shakespeare's works were performed. Yay! The theatre alone is beautiful. If you've ever seen the movie "Shakespeare in Love," you can picture where I was. In terms of seating, one could either pay 5 pounds and stand in the yard (the area in front of the stage) for three hours, or pay 15 pounds and sit on a hard bench for three hours. I weighed my options. Choosing the yard meant standing, with the possibility of not being able to see very well because I am so short, for three hours. The yard is also open air. And this is London, so I could very well be standing, with a poor view of the stage, IN THE RAIN, for three hours. I chose the hard bench for 15 pounds. It turned out to be a good choice, especially because I was in the back row of the first gallery, so I was able to lean up against the wall.

The play was Henry IV, which is not my favorite Shakespeare play, but who cares? It's the Globe. What I really enjoyed about seeing this play was the complete absence of any modern technology. No mics, no lights, no fancy machinery, no speakers...nothing. Just actors on stage, in costume, with a very minor set. Just like it was performed hundreds of years ago. And it was so very enjoyable! The actor playing Falstaff was incredibly funny and had the audience in hysterics! Most of the other scenes actually involving King Henry were not as enjoyable, simply because they just aren't as entertaining, but it was still quite good. La, la, la, la, la, hip hooray for Shakespeare! Ten bucks to whoever can tell me what musical that line is from.

Thus concludes my first London theatre review.

The Mean Reds

Sometimes you have a bad day.

Sometimes you catch a case of what Holly Golightly calls "The Mean Reds." It's not the same as the blues.

"The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?" -Breakfast at Tiffany's

You know you're going to catch the mean reds when you wake up and you still have that awful cold that you just can't seem to shake.

Then you decide to start on some homework, but the passage that you're reading is impossibly difficult to understand and you don't know how you're going to write an essay on this.

Then you look out the window and see that it's raining. Yet again.

But you decide to soldier on and run some errands anyway.

You have nothing good to wear. Your hair looks messy and this dorm room is too tiny to be occupied by two people.

You step out your front door and a few blocks down the road, you realize that you picked the worst shoes in the world to wear on this day.

Of course, you step in a puddle.

Your jeans are getting wet and are sloppily hitting your ankle and shin and you might as well not being wearing shoes at all.

You keep bumping into other people's umbrellas on the road and when all you want to do is get on the train that will take you to your destination, everyone else decides to walk at a snail's pace.

And then you cannot find the book that you need for your Monday class. The book that you have tried to find in more than one bookstore. The book that is supposed to be read in one week, but will not be read by you if you cannot find it.

You remember that you could try to find it at the library. Then you find out that the library is closed.

The one person that you really need to respond to your text message has yet to do so.

You go to the store to buy a dishtowel to use in your kitchen, because your kitchen-mates clearly have never washed a towel before and you cannot bear to use that disgusting towel for another day.

But the store is crowded and the lines are too long and you decide to leave empty handed.

You are tired of walking and holding this stupid umbrella and although the coat you are wearing is shielding you from the rain, you are starting to feel uncomfortably warm.

You are hungry and tired and wet and you miss your family and you miss your friends.

And you kind of just want to go home.

You've got the mean reds and you've got them bad.

But then you stop. And you remember where you are.

You tell yourself, dearie, you're in London. Stop it.

You remember the wonderful day that you had yesterday.

You remember how much you enjoyed walking through the park and taking photographs and you remember the moment you found the Peter Pan statue.

You'd waited your whole life to see Peter Pan and there he was.

You remember how you got all choked up, sitting there on that bench, simply because you were so happy.

The mean reds start to fade.

And then you remember your friend's favorite motto, "Choose joy."

And you decide to be happy.

You still don't know where you'll find that book, but it will work out.

The essay won't be that bad and you can do it tomorrow.

You finally get a response to that text message.

You realize that you don't need to be walking so fast so you slow down.

You give up avoiding puddles and instead take off your shoes and roll up your jeans because you've only got one more block to go anyway.

You get home, set everything down and trash those stupid shoes. They're too beat up to keep.

Then your friend calls you and says, "Let's go see a movie," and you hope they have good popcorn in London.

:)