January 19th, 2006 Location: London, England |
| I woke up and headed to a nearby spot with the class to meet and talk with Desmond Baritt, the actor who played Hector in the performance of "The History Boys" we saw last night. I was intrigued since i knew he had directed a few productions at Cornell, and had personal ties to Katy & Michelle. He was a jovial fellow, eager to tell of his experiences and answer our questions. It was quite different than our time with Emma Lowndes from Great Expectations, as she was quite "green" yet in the field of acting, and he is a seasoned, more experienced actor. He was also a fantastic example of someone who didn't go to drama school or have professional training, and is still successful in the business. I really enjoyed speaking with him and the whole experience. |
| I knew I was to meet Michelle in front of the Reading Room in the British Museum at 2:00p.m., so I headed that way with Andrew, who wanted to go to the museum too. We stopped and had lunch in a place called "Munchkin's" and I paid £8 for my first real London, England fish and chips. It was a huge piece of cod with lovely golden chips (observe the background)! I doused my chips in malt vinegar and they were deeeelicious. |
| By the time I got to the museum, it was 12:30p.m. so I unfortunately didn't get to see the whole museum because of time constraints. It was a gorgeous building, very modern and unlike any architecture I had seen yet. There was a heavy emphasis on the Egyptian relics it possessed, which quite frankly, doesn't spark my interest that much. It was interesting though to move from room to room and see the evolution of architecture and style. Egyptian to Roman to Asian to European, all throughout history, under one roof. Even the statues showed the evolution. You saw that as time went by, more detail was being used for the shape of the human body. The Egyptians had rounded curves, not much detail except for painting. Asia began developing more detail with eyes and hair, but the bodies were shrouded usually. Romans began to shed their clothes and attempt to sculpt the human body in all its detailed glory first, from what I could tell. | |
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My last stop was the magnificent Reading Room, which is this gigantic 360° round library with more books than I have ever seen. It had a beautiful, huge dome for a ceiling and the whole place seemed to glow from the inside. It was breathtaking. I met Michelle and then we were on our way to the US Embassy. |
| After a tube trip and a quick walk, we found the Embassy. It wasn't hard, considering it stuck out like a hideous thumb or modern, ugly 1980's architecture amongst the other beautiful buildings. We were there to pick up our Letters of Introduction so we could try to sit in on the Prime Minister's question time in the House of Commons that following Wednesday. After a bit of waiting, we walked away triumphant, the tickets in possession. |
| Since we were close by, Michelle and I grabbed some coffee and decided to walk around Hyde Park a bit. I got my picture taken in front of the Marble Arch and we perused Speaker's Corner, even though no one was there. We walked for a bit and (much like St. James Park) enjoyed the scenery. After awhile we got on the tube and split up, as our destinations were different. I was headed for King's Cross, to fulfill a Harry Potter geek dream. |  |
| In Harry Potter, Harry departs from Platform 9¾ in King's Cross train station to get to Hogwarts, his school. In honour of it, they erected a sign in between Platforms 9 and 10 that says 9¾. I found it and squealed with delight, having a newspaper vendor take my picture. I was overcome with geek joy. I hopped back on the tube and headed back to the hotel, grabbing a pasty to eat as I went (mmm... delicious) and then changed for the theatre that evening. |
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Tonight's show was "Coram Boy," with a children's choir onstage performing selections of Handel's "Messiah," and a gaggle of rowdy kids in the audience. The show was... interesting to say the least. The dialogue was nothing special or even stirring in the slightest. The acting was alright and the only person who really stood out was Anna madley, who played Alex the main character as a boy. The story was intriguing and risqué with the murder of infants on stage and sex, but everything else just felt... trite and forced. It felt as if it was trying to be weird and disturbing too hard. Meshak's character especially, with his crawling around and calling for "My angel!" continually reminded me of Gollum and his cries for "My Precious," which made me giggle involuntarily constantly (I eventually renamed the show "Gollum and the Fetus That Got Away.") The end was the worst where after death, sex, infanticide, execution, etc, everyone hugs and kisses and sings - I kid you not - "Hallelujah." |
| The one aspect of this show I thoroughly enjoyed was the technical aspect. The stage was on this incredible, huge rotating dais and used very little props or furniture to show where you were. The set itself was great and had all these tiny cubbies in the floor that (at one point) are opened to reveal a dozen tiny infant skeletons. While all of this is happening, the chorus is chanting with demonic fervor and the faux lightening was blazing. It was an extremely intense (and my favorite) moment. Another triumph was the scene where once Melissa realizes she's pregnant, to show the passing of time she stood front and center of the stage and a trickle of leaves fell on her, going from green to yellow to orange to red to brown and eventually becoming snow. It was simple, and beautiful. My last (and favorite) techie trick happened at the end of the show with the underwater sequence featuring Toby and Aaron. When the blue cellophane sheet came down, I was confused at first, but as soon as the boys came down on harnesses and mocked flailing underwater, trying to reach the surface, it became clear. It was a fantastic piece of directing and tech work, and it was brilliant. |
I headed back to the hotel and crashed after the play. Another day in London gone! -Jessica Jones, Posted 1.30.2006 |
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