I've been amazed how much time everything seems to take here in London as far as planning. I knew I wanted to take the children to see Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre when we got here. So here's the process:
Google Globe Theatre
Study season and do research to decide which play we want to experience
Start looking at dates but can't buy tickets since we'd not cemented dates for travel and family coming
Forget about it due to everything else going on in our lives
Recommence six weeks later and then sad that my ticket options weren't as good as the first time I'd looked
Purchase, receive, and tuck away tickets where they are safe AND try to remember where I put them
Gather children two hours before we are leaving to read about the Globe Theatre and a synopsis of a Midsummer's Nights Dream
Make sure I know how to get there by tube and coordinate a coupon so we can also go out to eat
Grateful our tickets were on the side where we missed some vulgarity due to our seats
Got tickled as we were on one row by ourselves and we all shifted from side to side in order to see
It was such a wonderful experience. My only regret is that I could not have included more children that I love in our evening. The children have been exposed to Shakespeare, Caroline has studied it. To see their first Shakespearean play in The Globe Theatre was just phenomenal.
I was a little concerned, okay a lot concerned, when we walked by a bill board for A Midsummer's Nights Dream to see a more modern version than I had expected. The poster had a scantily clad woman and another couple in a lip lock that seemed a little more passionate than I was comfortable with. This was where I was grateful for that huge column that blocked our view here and there.
It was brilliant: Original dialog through and through, dress from the twenties, a twist of jazz for any singing, instruments used by the actors included the saxophone, clarinet, banjo, and drums, and a mean Charleston that lit up the faces of all. Creativity at it's finest. I have no doubt that Mr. Shakespeare would have been tickled through and through.
We laughed so hard. The acting was so excellent that you didn't even notice the Old English. The actors conveyed the story through so many other mediums than just words. Eight actors, one stage, an engaged audience, much talent, and a beautiful evening in London with our children!
Love in Christ,
Dinah for The Troops
Dinah for The Troops
