I thought that Monday would be low key, but it didn’t turn out that way! After breakfast we had an introduction to British politics led by one of the leading journalists of the day, in an interview format led by Giles. There were lots of questions and comparisons made with the political scene in the U.S. today, especially with topics like Brexit and immigration policies. We broke for lunch and had traditional pub fare with our new friend Penny, a nurse from Wisconsin.
After lunch, we met an expert in acting who explained how actors interact when they first meet to work together on a play and we did exercises to loosen us up and get to know each other. Many people were a bit wary of this workshop (including myself, with no theater training) but we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. By the end of the workshop, we had developed a character and were “ interviewed “ by the instructor to see if we could stay in character. They were amazing! The time flew by. I transformed myself into Suzette, who started speaking in French but was then told that I had to speak English, so I did it, with a very broad, bad French accent. I was 34, lived in Paris, wanted to play Marie Antoinette but before she visited the guillotine, and so on. Beatrice was Scarlet, the great great great granddaughter of the “ other” Scarlet, who spent her days on the plantation drinking mint julips. She bemoaned the fact that life just wasn’t the same as it used to be..she thanked everyone who was there for visiting her because she didn’t get much company nowadays.
We had a nice steak dinner at the hotel then set out to see “ People, Places & Things,” a revival of an award-winning play with the original cast. It shows a young actress in the throws of addiction, beginning with a botched up Hedda Gabler on stage and ending up in the funny farm, and at the end, at her parent’s house. It was a brutal though occasionally funny play and the subject matter was not for the faint of heart. I thought it was brilliant. Others hated it. They wanted to be entertained. We discussed our views on the way home on the bus. Giles asked us a lot of probing questions. He said he was to blame if people didn’t like the plays because he selected them and wanted to give us a variety of options. He said, “We can’t have ‘ Kiss Me Kate’ every night.” That will be our last play, which we will see Wednesday night. .
An extra added attraction ( if you want to call it that): two young girls were making out in front of us, but, thankfully, not during the performance. I am not used to PDA, I guess.
Today’s Royal opera house tour at Covent Garden was sensational; however, we were unable to take pictures inside the house. We met Ann at 1:00 at the National Portrait Gallery and had a lunch with a view. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day. Ann and I had fun at the gift shop, posing her as Queen Ann of the Crooked Crown. We managed to see some pictures before it was time to head back to get ready for our evening’s entertainment.
Tonight’s play was “Grapes of Wrath” at the National Theatre. I will discuss it later because I am completely out of steam. Tomorrow will be non-stop busy and I probably won’t be able to finish up this blog until after I get back, when I have time to do it justice. Wednesday – tomorrow – is our last full day. We leave the hotel Thursday early morning to fly back to San Francisco.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back..
Wow! All that in one day? Looks like a lot of fun. Definitely a one of a kind day.
Actually, two days. I tacked on Tuesday too. Exhausting activities but worth the effort. The opera house tour was great.