Hamlet 2.

Not much has happened today. If LT were writing this blog entry, he would tell you about the historical and personal significance of each landmark that was seen today on his and Allie's walk from Citadines to the Globe Theater. But LT isn't writing this blog entry, Allie is. So you're going to have to deal with some occasionally annoying brevity until LT decides to edit this entry, because honestly? Allie doesn't know that much about London history.

Anyways, the morning started off as it usually did. Allie woke up at around 7 AM, and set about making tea, going online, and eating one of the fruit salads that she always makes at Sainsbury's for her and Dad. Once Dad woke up, Allie made scrambled eggs, and was finally able to get the hob to start working in less than five minutes, with a little help from LT. Breakfast was eaten, second cups of tea were drunk, plates were washed, and by ten, Allie and LT went on their walk from Holborn to the Globe. The streets were busier than they were in the past, but hey, it was ten o'clock and not eight thirty. Allie is sad to say that she doesn't have any pictures of the two of them today, but she does have some nice pictures of various landmarks and graffiti art, so the imaginary readers of this blog can look at those! Yay!

At the end of the walk to the Globe, the father-daughter duo found themselves a bit wiped out, and decided to head back to the hotel room. They went to St. Paul's tube stop, and bought two all day tickets, for they plan to use the Tube later to get to the Globe (no one should have to do that walk two times in one day, it's cruel and unusual punishment.) They stopped by Sainsbury's, got some stuff for lunch and breakfast tomorrow morning, and came back to Citadines. And then Dad told Allie that she couldn't have one of her veg pots until she wrote an entry on the blog, because she's been slacking off. Later, Allie and LT will head back to the Globe (on the Tube this time) to see another production of Hamlet. It should be exciting!

At 7:30PM that evening Allie and LT entered the Globe Playhouse, which is an exact replica of the one Shakespeare used,  in almost the exact spot on the Bankside of the Thames.  Since  it was a traditional Elizabethan performance, several actors began playing a song and before we knew it, rough gray boards  had been set on the stage, small wooden sawhorses were used for the castle turrets of Elisinore and the play was begun.  It was quite moving to think that 411 years ago (in 1599 or 1600--no on knows exactly when the first performance took place) Hamlet had been played in this very site--and some traditions hold that Shakespeare actually took the role of the "ghost" of Hamlet's father.

On Saturday evvening at the National Theatre (NT), we had seen an award-winning contemporary interpretation of Hamlet, which Allie has already described in excellent detail, so it was wonderful for us to be able to see a true "Elizabethan" performance on Tuesday night, with most of the actors doubling or even tripling their roles--the actress doing Ophelia also did Voltemand, the actor doing Horatio did lots of smaller roles, Polonius became the grave-digger, the evil uncle Claudius played both the ghost of Hamlet's father and the player King.  It was all very easy to follow.   At the NT, the Hamlet had been modern, introspective, subtle, conflicted--very complex.  In contrast, the Globe Hamlet was more extroverted--since he had to move from side to side of the large open air Elizabethan stage.  He was quite small in stature, but he made up for it in gusto and flair.  I really enjoyed his interpretation.  He was so diminutive that when he first greeted his friend Horatio ("What make you from Wittenburg, Horatio"), he jumped into his arms, and the larger more portly Horatio was actually able to lift him off the ground.

Since the London weather had changed in the past two days--becoming much colder--I had worn every stitch of wool clothing I had--T-shirt, long sleeved shirt, cashmere vest, Harris Tweed sports coat--and still I shivered a bit when the wind creeped through the theatre.  To quote the play, "The air bites shrewdly.  It was an eager and a nipping air.  When the performance was over and the cast had taken several bows, Allie and LT walked back over the Millineum Bridge to the St. Paul tube station.  It was so cold, and the wind howled so "eagerly" over the Thames, that Allie tucked into LT's shoulder and he tried to share the warmth of his Harris Tweed with her.  Eventually they reached the warmth of the tube station and journied the two tube stops--St. Pauls, Chancerey Lane, Holborn back to Citidines.

They experienced travelers had wisely stocked up on extra soup and chocolate for after theatre snacks and they talked over the play, warmed up with soup--Broccoli -Stilton for LT, while Allie had another of her Veg Pots--and to top it off a Rocky Road chocolate, marshmallow pudding, which was just the right combination to send them both off into dreamland.