Today, delighted to be back with Expat Bucket List London! Well, back with the founder of both this and Bucket List London - I hadn't actually been with the Expat group yet. Yippee, back to the Globe - for The Comedy of Errors. Unfortunately, while I was in the Lower Gallery, as usual, the others were upstairs.. the organiser did offer to switch with me, so I'd have some company, but I wouldn't subject him to such a lower-priced seat! Anyway, I do like to be close.
Slight confusion beforehand - I couldn't find the message where we'd arranged where to meet, but thought it was the river entrance - but when I got there, there was no sign. So I meandered around to the other entrance, then back - and wouldn't have spotted them at all, but for that he spotted me. Do you know, it turned out I was the only one of us to have been there before! so I did a wee tour for them, before we went in. Someone had advised him against the Lower Gallery seats, tsk..
It was such a hot, clammy day - as usual, the ushers' main job was preventing groundlings from sitting on anything. Several people were fanning themselves, lots had the Globe "hats", which provide a shade for the eyes but not much else. I really pitied people caught in the sun, when it came out - a couple felt faint, and were let sit in the Gallery. (You can actually see my fellow group members in the photo, if you zoom right in.. they were directly in my sight line.)
Well, the performance - typically for here - was as merry and raucous as you could wish. A boat "sailed" in through the crowd a couple of times, and there was a bit of banter with the crowd near the stage. Interestingly, I see they now have two groundling rates - near the stage and not near, perhaps? One of the main performers had injured herself, and someone had to stand in for her - as another explained at the start, with absolutely no rehearsal - they don't have understudies. She acquitted herself quite well, although having to read, and not getting to dress up..
Well, 'tis another barmy tale of mixed-up identities - Shakespeare did seem to fancy those. Identical twin brothers - to be fair, played by similar-looking, and identically dressed, actors - are separated at birth, and their lives follow quite separate paths. They finally fetch up in the same city, and hilarity ensues as one is mistaken for the other. The craziness is compounded by the fact that each has a manservant who is the brother of the other's - and guess what? They look alike, too. Or maybe people don't pay so much attention to servants - certainly, they dress the same, though. There's also a father knocking around - and as the Duke says at the end, there'll be a lot of gossip at the feast!
As usual, my side view wasn't really a problem - except when there was some visual gag, and a huge laugh from the crowd, just as the actor was standing on the other side of a pillar from me. They had a platform running into the audience this time - that's nice, you do see more. Not to mention it gives the groundlings another thing to lean on. Only quibble from me - the father, in particular, had poor projection: and frankly, they all needed to yell today - the helicopter that keeps swooping over was particularly noisome. Hovered right above for what must have been 15 minutes - I swear, I have a theory they're watching the show. The actors feel it too, of course - in fact, it was even woven into the text today, with one of the servants complaining about the helicopter! ("Whatever a 'helicopter' is..")
Well, despite that, another fun production at the Globe - and as usual, this feels like the start of summer for me. Runs till the 29th of next month. Afterwards, with the organiser having to shoot off, I didn't wait for them - headed off to the adjacent Pizza Express, as usual when I'm here, and asked to sit upstairs, for their gorgeous views. And tried another of their new starters - the garlic mushrooms are very moreish, very strong flavour, what with the balsamic syrup.. served with slivers of goat's cheese, which counterpoints the flavour nicely. And I had my usual carbonara (which arrived while I was still tacking the mushrooms) - didn't honestly think I'd manage to finish it, in this heat, but I surprised myself. Had to be ice cream for dessert, of course. And then a bus home - and here's an interesting thing - I caught it on Blackfriars Bridge, and lo! it has something like half the number of steps up to it of, say, Waterloo Bridge. Now, that's a fact worth knowing, if you're not keen on overexerting yourself..
I fully intended to move into my new flat tonight, stay till Monday - when I'm at something nearer my old place. I packed a load of stuff - as much as I could reasonably take in one run - and slogged out there, in what was a cooler, but still muggy, night. On which none of the buses obliged me, and I was waiting for ages. Only to discover that my flat key wouldn't work! They obviously gave me the wrong one. Well, I knocked, and lo, the flatmate whose room is near the door let me in. So at least I got to meet him! We confirmed that I had the wrong key - I did get into my room though, which has a code (or I probably wouldn't have). But, well, I did leave some stuff, moved the furniture around, hooked my phone up to the WiFi.. Not practical to move in though, until the key issue is sorted. Not and have to have someone let me in all the time! I still have the old place until the end of next month anyway.. I'd just have liked to leave more stuff out there, but it didn't work out that way. Never mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment