Last weekend, Fi & I had another date with Shakespeare, this time on his home turf in the quaint English hamlet of
Stratford-upon-Avon. In order to make the journey, she & I booked a vehicle from
Zipcar, a rental service we belong to which allows you to hire cars by the hour. Saturday's winner was a brand-new
Volkswagen Polo. Although it's pretty much the bottom-rung VW, I rather like that model. It looks fierce, wouldn't you say?
Okay, maybe not fierce, but definitely... zippy. We rented this bad boy for the day & drove it from London to
Warwickshire on Saturday afternoon, making our first stop at
Kenilworth Castle, a ruined
Norman stronghold located about an hour's journey outside of Oxford.
Full disclosure: I haven't yet experienced most of Kenilworth Castle. We arrived some five minutes before closing time, so our visit was limited to the public path around the castle wall. Still, as you can see, the view from without wasn't bad. Fi insists the inside is worth a return-trip, so perhaps we'll make that a priority when next we're hosting some American visitors.
After a quick pit-stop at Kenilworth's
Clarendon Arms for a tasty beverage, Fi & I got back on the road & proceeded on to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we had tickets for that
Royal Shakespeare Company's evening production of
Macbeth. This was my first time seeing Stratford, & I was somewhat charmed. For a town that could've easily devolved into a soulless tourist trap, Stratford has handled
bardolatry surprisingly well, keeping the kitsch to an unoffensive minimum. Although we only had a few minutes to walk around before our show, I saw enough to think I wouldn't mind returning with a bit more time to explore. All the
Elizabethan-themed architecture is great fun to see.
On the walk from the high street to the theatre, I noticed something odd about the streetlights -- none of them matched. Further inspection revealed that various counties around England had each donated one of their own lamps for this path. Kind of a fun idea.
The
Royal Shakespeare Theatre turned out to be extremely nice. In recent years, it underwent extensive renovations, part of which included extending the stage into the audience (known as an apron). This change makes for a very intimate feel, bringing the actors much closer to the audience.
I won't go into detail about the play, because it'd keep me writing all night, but I will say that I found the set extremely interesting. The backdrop was built to resemble the inside of a cathedral having had its windows & walls vandalized & broken through. Fi explained to me that this motif was in keeping with the politics during the time of Macbeth's publication in the 17th century,
when England's churches were effectively gutted of anything resembling a religious image by mobs zealous reformers. Admittedly, I wouldn't have picked up on this myself. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes, it helps to have a Shakespeare scholar as your date.
Although Fi & I both agreed the guy cast as Macbeth didn't really work out, overall, I found the production to be excellent. The seats were comfortable too, with plenty of legroom even for those of us who tend to be too American for English spaces. I'd gladly invest the time & money to get back to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for another play. For those of you planning to visit in the near future, let us know if you'd like to make the trip.
