This should be the last post about my recent trip to London. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I visited Westminster Abbey. Photographs were not allowed inside and I'd previously taken some photos of the outside on another trip, so I only took one on my visit there this time. It would probably be better to post this on Monday or to have posted it on Thursday, but this photo is a portion of the wall above the main door at Westminster Abbey displaying the statues of 9 "martyrs," according to the tour guide. I've captured 3 of them here, the one in the middle being Martin Luther King, Jr.:

From an article in Jet Magazine (I think):

Canon Anthony Harvey of Westminster Abbey said King "combined an explicitly Christian language of freedom and justice with an appeal to American democracy."

"On April 4, 1968, he was shot dead in Memphis. He was 39 years old. Today he is widely celebrated as one of the great prophetic leaders of the later 20th century, and his name still inspires those who follow his call for justice," he said.

I think I mentioned in my last post, too, that I'd gone to the Novello Theatre Saturday night, which was the closing night, to see whether I could get a return ticket for Hamlet, but there were none to be had by the time I arrived. So, I wandered around central London fairly aimlessly on Saturday night (coffee shop, bookstore, etc), but returned to the Novello Theatre, which really was on my way back to the hotel anyway, at the time the play was due to be over.

I'd say there were probably about 75 people clustered around the stage door holding stuff for the actors to sign (though, I think it was too cold to expect the actors to sign anything) in addition to 15-20 people with really big cameras who I assume were paparazzi. After some time (which I'm very bad at judging), someone came out to sign a few things - I believe it was Tom Davey, who played Guildenstern, since I could see him fairly clearly. Then, some time after that, David Tennant came out, but I was only able to see the top of his hair. I assume it was him, though, because as soon as he went back inside, the crowd began to disperse. As I was walking around the front of the theatre (which was the direction of my hotel), suddenly all these people with the big cameras started to run around to the front doors of the theatre and I heard someone shout, "He'll come out the front doors!" So, I watched them for a few minutes. It was pretty funny, actually. They positioned themselves right in front of the front doors with cameras ready until, after about 30 seconds, someone shouted something like, "No, these doors!" and a bunch of the people with the big cameras ran down the side of the theatre building. After another 30 seconds, some of them came back, so they were spread out along the theatre building. I have to say that I felt a bit sorry to think that the actors were trapped inside the theatre and quickly left after that, since I didn't want to contribute to a crowd of people that was torturing them. What they really need is a secret tunnel from the theatre that lets out into a secluded street several blocks away. Who knows - maybe they have that! *lol*

If there is anyone reading this who might like to see Hamlet on DVD, please sign this petition. (For those on Facebook, joining the group on Facebook isn't the same as signing the petition. I think the Facebook group is mainly for updates. According to the latest update there, though, Michael Boyd, the artistic director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, has been in contact with the petition's author and is reading the petition with interest.)

Sunday, which was my last full day in London, I went to see Twelfth Night. This is the story of a twin brother and sister who are shipwrecked and find themselves in an unfamiliar land, each thinking the other is dead. The sister, Viola, passes herself off as a boy to work for the local duke, Orsino, and is sent on his behalf to court Olivia. Unfortunately, Olivia falls in love with Viola (as the boy, Cesario) while Viola falls in love with Orsino. There are several other characters in the households of Orsino and Cesario involved in side storylines, one of which involves making Olivia's steward, Malvolio, believe that Olivia is actually in love with him. (A mean trick, I thought, but I guess it would have played well to people who were victims of a class system.) It turned out that my ticket for Twelfth Night was very good, row K in the stalls, and I really enjoyed it.

I thought the play was very good, though not as good as Hamlet. The difference was the the actors' voices. For Hamlet, it sounded like the actors were speaking and it was easy to get drawn in - to believe the actors really were who they were portraying. For Twelfth Night, it sounded like many (not all) of the actors were projecting, which was a frequent glaring reminder that they were actors and they weren't really who they were pretending to be. Of course, the most experienced actor on the stage, Derek Jacobi, who I knew from Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and Dead Again, was perfect. :) He always seemed to be speaking normally and made an excellent representation of comically taking himself very seriously as Malvolio. He was hilarious! :-D

Otherwise, I was most impressed with Alex Waldmann, who played Sebastian (Viola's twin brother), and Zubin Varla, who played Feste (the entertainer/clown). Waldmann, it seems, has only been in theatre. Varla had previously played Feste in a TV version of this play (which I have never seen). He strummed guitar and sang during the play, which was very nice. Olivia was played by Indira Varma, who I had previously seen in Bride and Prejudice, Rome, and Torchwood. My only criticism of the play was that the chemistry between Varma and Victoria Hamilton, who played Viola, was not very good. I didn't really buy that Olivia had fallen in love with Viola (as Cesario). Perhaps that will improve with time, though. As I noticed during the second performance of Hamlet that I saw months after I first saw it, the relationships among all the characters seemed to have improved to the point of seeming entirely natural.

Overall, the Shakespeare audience seems tougher than the musical theatre audience. Neither of the 2 Shakespearean plays got a full standing ovation, but Oliver! did.

Sunday evening, I was sent to a French restaurant at the Covent Garden Market for dinner by the hotel's concierge, who was French. As I was looking around the Market area for the restaurant, I came across a sextet who were performing in an open area of the Market near a pub. (Some of the pub's patrons were actually eating and drinking outside, despite the cold.) I sat and watched them for a few pieces (something by Mozart, "The Can-can", and the opening of Carmen) and gave them a couple of pounds. I also took a picture:



I have no idea of what the group was calling themselves. They seemed very good, though. They were also able to play while running around and bouncing, which was amusing to see.

At the restaurant, I had a glass of wine (some kind of rosé) and by chance set it down right in front of a small candle on the table, which made the wine seem to glow. I thought it was interesting, so I took a picture of that, too! :)



And then it was time to pack for home...back to reality last Monday.