Square Pies. YUM. I write about food probably too often but this place was unbelievable. If you ever come to London borrow my Cheap Eats book. It's lead me to places such as the great Stick and Bowl, Square Pie, etc. Square pie - they give you literally a square pie (I got Cottage Pie - minced beef carrots and potatoes) mashed potatoes and mushy peas. Mushy peas shouldn't be good but they are. oh and the most amazing gravy I have ever tasted.
Went to platform 9 3/4. Harry Potter's train gate to Hogwarts!
I went to the Foundling Museum. It was a hospital started in the 1700's for children whose parents/mothers couldn't take care of them. Orphanage I guess, but also a school. The most interesting part was how the rich people would come to watch the kids eat lunch on Sundays b/c it made them feel good about themselves for helping them. It was essentially only started because it was fashionable at the time to be charitable. A sad part was the cabinet with trinkets/coins/rings/etc that the mothers left with their babies when they admitted them to the hospital.
Went to the Imperial War Museum with my WWI class. It's a very good museum! Interesting displays even for me - a non-history-liking person.
Went to our last play for our theatre class. It was a shit play. We've seen a good mix of good plays and bad plays. The best play I've seen was the one we had to choose to go to on our own. It was so good! It was called The Dying of Today. If anyone's a theatre buff, it was by Howard Barker and performed by the Wrestling School. It was probably the best play I've ever seen. (I also really liked A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe though.) I don't want to write again what it was about (I had to write a review of it for class) So I'll just post that instead!.
The Dying of Today centered around the idea of the beauty of pain, catastrophe and suffering. A visitor entered a barber shop. He asked the barber if he likes bad news. He asked if the barber wanted to hear the horrible news he happily possessed. The visitor was practically giddy with the thought of telling the barber the bad news.
Written by Howard Barker and performed by his company The Wrestling School, The Dying of Today is currently being performed the Arcola Theatre. This run is the first time the play has been performed in the UK. The play is based on an account of the total destruction of the Athenian army and navy in 413 BC. A survivor of the expedition casually mentioned the news of the complete slaughter while being shaved. This play deals with a similar communication of a catastrophe. The Wrestling School was started in 1988 to stage plays by Howard Barker, who directed most of the productions. The company got its name from the idea that the actors had to wrestle with the meanings and concepts before being able to properly convey them to an audience. It was obvious that much wrestling and thought had been put into this moving and powerfully performed production. Howard Barker is known for making plays about the extremes of human experience and challenging ideas. This play is no exception.
The visitor, played by Duncan Bell, continuously asked the barber, played by George Irving, if he wanted to hear the bad news. After the visitor asked if the barber had a son, the barber guessed that his son, who was in the army, had been killed and that this was the bad news. He guessed further that the whole army had been killed and that they had all been cornered in a quarry and slaughtered. The visitor watched the barber’s animated telling of these horrific events with relish.
Throughout the barber’s telling of what he imagined the slaughter to be like, the visitor watched the reflection of the barber’s face in the mirror. Whenever he was unable to see, he would ask the barber to reveal his face so that he could continue watching. He commented on the beauty of the barber and his words while he talked about such pain and suggested that he could not have told the story better himself. He said, “How beautiful were the barber’s tears and more beautiful still holding of the tears, and yet more beautiful than that, the tears still coming through the holding…”
The entire play was based on the telling and receiving of the bad news. Emphasis was made on the beauty of pain and the beauty that pain brings out of people. The visitor expressed this when he stated, “Why do you prefer bad news, I ask myself, do you like grief, do you like chaos? Not at all. Only I think men are more beautiful flung down than standing up.” Pain is a necessary and unavoidable part of life. It is arguably the strongest emotion that can be felt and, as this play suggests, it can bring about a kind of beauty.
The content and meaning of the play were powerful on their own, but the performances, staging and theater made this production even more intriguing. Only two rows of benches surrounding the small stage on three sides created an intimate environment that allowed all members of the audience to study the engrossing facial expressions of both Bell and Irving. A large section of the play, starting from when he first walked on stage, the barber did not say one word yet so much was communicated from his face alone. This intimate environment also added to the notion that the barber and the visitor alone possessed such great and tragic news that would soon affect every aspect of the surrounding community’s life. The small audience had this knowledge, too, and had it been a large theater full of hundreds of people, this effect and some meaning would have been lost.
The set, designed by Tomas Leipzig, was realistic in some aspects, but surreal as well. It was obvious that it was a barber shop with a barber chair and sink. However, yellowed newspapers were unnaturally taped to the back wall hinting at the theme of news and communication. The lighting, designed by Ace McCarron, was red and green at times to highlight the intensity of the characters’ feelings. The performances and the story itself were slightly exaggerated and coincided with the surreal aspects of the set and lighting.
The set and story were intriguing and thought-provoking, but the performances were the best part of the production. Bell and Irving’s insightful and nuanced portrayals of these complex characters were enough to keep the audience intrigued for the seventy minutes that their two characters alone occupied the stage. They both fit their parts perfectly. Irving’s facial features had the perfect combination of emotion and stoicism. Bell pulled off what could be a tough role. Despite the visitor’s uncommon and almost repulsive obsession with pain and suffering, his character seemed more of an almost mystical visitor from another realm than a crazy masochist. By the end of the play he has somehow convinced members of the audience to almost love the beauty of pain as much as he does.
This weekend I plan on going to the touristy things that I haven't made it to yet. The Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, St. Pauls, and maybe a boat tour. I still have to go up in the Eye, and I really want to see the Design Museum. I also have approximately 50 papers to write. Should be a busy weekend! Will probably also make an appearance at Square Pie and/or Stick and Bowl.
Being in London and doing touristy things makes me want to do more touristy things in Chicago when I get back!
1 comment:
Sounds like a most interesting play. I would like to see it. You might take some phots of you food, I would like to see it. Mike D. HFBGSS
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