Afrikaans, Stratford-upon-Avon

Thursday evening, my Black Culture class went to see a South African performace of "The Mysteries", which was originally performed in the Medieval period. It tells the stories of the Bible, both old and new testaments. This production, being South African, incorporated a lot of languages into the performance, including English, Latin, Afrikaans, and a South African tribal language, possibly Zulu. It was an incredible performance. I found myself wishing that more of the plays we went to were like this one; it was loud, fast, interesting and accessible. I thought it did an excellent job of humanizing elements of the Bible and of the stories so that people could understand the larger political and human issues behind biblical events.

Friday morning, I went on a trip with the Shakespeare class to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. Having been there before, I found myself feeling really cynical about the kind of tourist industry that is built up there. I understand that, certainly, it is a great source of income for the community, but there were all sorts of restaurants with hokey names referring to Shakespeare. One of the "recommended activities" was to visit Shakespeare's birthplace, as well as the Nash House and Anne Hathaway's cottage. Having done these things before, I passed, and was glad of it.

I did, however, really enjoy seeing the plays which were included in our itenerary. Friday night, we saw Julius Caesar, which was great, except for the audio-visual elements. The director apparently wanted there to be screens which showed the throngs of Romans cheering. It just wasn't that successful in my opinion. This play always makes me a little uncomfortable, because it shows how easily public opinion can be swayed by rhetoric. The other productions I've seen of Julius Caesar did a better job, in my opinion, of conveying the political power of language.

Saturday, we saw a pretty terrible matinee performance of As You Like It. We had already seen this play at the Globe Theatre, and I wish I hadn't gone to this production in Stratford-upon-Avon, because the acting just wasn't great. It's not my favorite play to begin with, and I ended up leaving at the interval, instead opting for coffee and Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" in the blustery autumn weather. A good choice, I think. However, Saturday night we say a performance of The Winter's Tale, which is a more interesting play to begin with, and it was a much better performance. I'd seen another production before, and had written a mid-term paper on the nature of madness in The Winter's Tale and King Lear, so I was much more invested in the play. I really enjoyed the way the actor playing Leontes showed the ways in which he truly believed his wife was having an affair. It was great.

We got back to London Sunday afternoon, and I spent the evening doing laundry, catching up in some school work and just relaxing. Today is a similar kind of day; it's rainy (lovely) and a bit cold and I have to finish the first part of my art history journal, which focuses on Jan van Eyck's "The Arnolfini Portrait". After I jump in the shower, I'll probably swing down to Starbucks and set up shop.

It's amazing to me how much I like doing things by myself. All day Saturday, my flat-mates were traveling around in little groups. I wish I could enjoy that kind of social atmosphere, but I can't deal with it. We were discussing plans for fall break, and two of my flatmates were talking about traveling in Europe together. They were a little anxious about figuring out train schedules, hostels, different languages, etc. I was surprised, because I will probably end up traveling alone over fall break. In fact, I'm looking forward to it. I wonder what makes people so different when it comes to preferences for social interaction and that sort of thing...