Catching Up: June 1, 2011 Stratford-Upon-Avon and The Merchant of Venice

Stratford-Upon-Avon Trip! Day one.


The train ride up was gorgeous! Once I get some pictures from Andy, I can prove it to you! So green and luch...it kind of reminded me of the Sonoma/Napa area of California in springtime.

The first thing we did after arriving in Stratford was settle down in our cute littles Bed & Breakfasts. Andy and I were in the Penhurst and our room was all yellow!

After some leisure time to take naps, we all met Tim to go to the Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was christened and is now buried. It was a beautiful church from the renaissance period and it is CROOKED!

The inscription on Shakespeare's grace:

GOOD FRIEND FOR iESUS SAKE FORBEARE,

TO DIFF THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE.
                     e             t
BLESS ME Y MAN Y SPARES THES STONES,
                                      t
AND CVRST BE HE Y MOVES MY BONES.

His grave was so simple. His memorial was simple. Shakespeare's legacy speaks for itself and lives on.

I looked up at the same ceiling that Shakespeare looked up at! Ahhh! This amazing man was baptized here and his funeral was here! Incredible.

After we wandered around the beautifully creepy cemetary outside the church, we left to go to Shakespeare's Birthplace! First we stopped by the Royal Shakespeare Company's theatre so we would know how to get there later that night to see The Merchant of Venice.


The birthplace museum was...pretty cool. You know...the parts where you saw some of Shakespeare's actual stuff...but, it was overdone....a lot like Disneyland. Shakespeare Disneyland...hm...I'd enjoy that.

Patrick Stewart as Shylock

After, a few of us bought one pound pasties at the Cornwall Pasty Co. and headed over to the park in front of the RSC to hang out before seeing Patrick Stewart, direted by Rupert Gould, play Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. It was fun! Especially because Claire had to speak in a mouse voice because she had lost her normal one.


This show was...amazing. It was innovative, bold, poignant and funny. It made choices that...I don't know I would've made, but I appreciated how it stretched my normal way of thinking. 


The show was set in modern day Las Vegas, which really played up the showy and deceitful sides of the story.

Patrick Stewart as Shylock...oh my GOD...incredible! He was terrifying one moment and the next, as vulnerable as a peach. I could not imagine a better performance of the "Hath not a Jew eyes?" monologue! He held the audience in his grip. He had our full attention whenever he was on stage.

Scott Handy as Antonio

The trial scene between Shylock and Antonio, well...and everyone else too, was so intense. It was almost unbearable to watch. They hoisted Antonio's handcuffed hands into the air by a long chain. His orange inmate's onesie was tied around his hips to make it easier for Shylock to cut out that pound of flesh. When Shylock approached Antonio with the knife, his body started to panic....he was breathing so hard, his stomach was convulsing with fear, he was sweating and shaking....extremely hard to watch. Rarely to movies or plays show realistically moments of extreme human fear, but they nailed it. I was preparing myself to see a damn execution, even though I knew the story didn't go there! 


But then, that valley girl beeyotch, Portia, had to ruin Shylock's like by, you know, finding a loophole in the bond. After Antonio and the court ruled that Shylock must lose everything, including abandoning his faith, Graziano spit on him and it was...the saddest thing...ever...

Susannah Fielding as Portia
Emily Plumtree as Nerissa

Here are some of my notes from the show:

• Las Vegas? Whaaa?! I wonder how this will work out.
• The set is bery elaborate and I love when shows start with characters...I mean actors on stage as their characters during the preshow. But, sometimes it gives me a different first impression of the show...like School For Scandal.
• Bassanio's speech pattern in the first scene = WTF.
• Creative scene settings: elevator, car...
• I wish Bassanio would change his facial expression. It's distracting and pushy.
• LOL WTF are you thinking, Bassanio!?

Also, the whole Portia part of the play was interesting in this production. She was like a beauty queen slash host of her own bachelorette type show. The show was called Destiny and was about all the men who come to try to court her by having to choose the right casket to win her. It was really funny and clever, but I thought it got a bit old...