January 3

The third day of the new year was Warwick Castle and Stratford-On-Avon.  Such a wonderful, but tiring day. 

Warwick Castle was neat!  Becca, I think you’ll flip out to know that I believe some of Merlin is filmed there.  Neat, huh?  Anyway, not only was it a medieval castle, but later on the early 20^th century, it was a house for the Duchess of Warwick, otherwise known as Daisy, from “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do.”  Cool, huh? 

Once again, Madame Tussaud’s work was everywhere, both in the mediaeval part of the castle and in the Edwardian part.  It was fun to look at, and at one point, there was this was figure of a porter that scared the pants off of me, ‘cause I thought it was real, but on the whole, it was rather Disney-fied, which isn’t a bad thing.  I just prefer my castles straight, if you know what I mean.  Give me four walls and old stone, my imagination will do the rest. 

We did get to see a really wonderful show on owls, though!  I we got to see Ernie, an Eagle Owl, and Oscar, a Barn Owl.  Ernie was big and powerful, and so amazing to see fly.  Oscar was so pretty, but he was younger than Ernie, so he misbehaved sometimes.  Not to mention the fact that it was rainy and windy, and Oscar was having a lot of trouble keeping upright in the wind. 

After that I went to get tea, ‘cause I knew that we weren’t going to have a change to eat any lunch.  I had my first taste of clotted cream, and it was good!  Tasted a bit like butter, only slightly sweeter.  I liked it a lot!!

After that, it was off to Anne Hathaway’s house and Stratford!  Anne Hathaway’s house was fun, and very very small.  I saw a chair that the family said Shakespeare use to sit in when he came a’courting.  I got to go inside of Holy Trinity Church and see the grave of Shakespeare, but, unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time to sit and revel in the memory of him, it was back on the bus to Shakespeare’s Birthplace.  That was great!  I got to walk on the floor where he walked and through the rooms where he grew up!  It was great fun!  But by this time, we were all exhausted, having gotten up at early and been going all day long.  My stalwart friends and I decided to go to a pub, The Dirty Duck to be precise, (though it was first known as the Black Swan) and take a load off.  I finally had fish and chips!  Hand-fried Halbot.  YUM!  It was so GOOD!  DROOL!  I also had some local ale, Abbot’s Ale.  It packed a punch, let me tell you!  We sat there and whiled the hours away until it was time for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Measure for Measure!

What a disappointment.  I’m completely serious.  No fault of the actors, though.  Entirely the director’s fault.  It was a post-apocalyptic setting.  Post-apocalyptic.  Measure for Measure.  WHAT?!?  Awful awful awful.  Then the costuming was ridiculous!  The duke had this stupid brown corset on that looked like something from Elmer Fudd’s closet of shame! Ugh.

Then the whores!  They were all BDSM.  Leather and spikes.  Very racy and pushing the envelope in what is socially acceptable to see onstage.  Unfortunately, they pushed the envelope in the wrong direction, because in the scene where Angelo propositions Isabella was so weak!  There was no tension!  I didn’t see Isabella’s horror, because Angelo didn’t do anything terrible!  He was acting like a douchebag, but he never laid a hand on her, so it seemed like her terrible horrified reaction came out of nowhere.  That was sort of a theme in the play though, because when The Duke proposed to Isabella that too came out of nowhere!!  There was no moment of tenderness, no inkling that they even liked each other!  The only clue we got was the first meeting that the Duke and Isabella had, and when he exited, he made it very clear that he lusted after her, but love?  It never came into play. 

I have much more criticism, but this entry is long enough.  Suffice it to say, my first RSC production was a disappointment.  The delivery of lines and acting was impeccable.  I found no fault in that.  It was the director who mucked it all up. 

So today is January 4, and I’ve finally caught up with all my journals!  It’s taken me awhile, but I’ve done it!!  Huzzah!!