It is becoming increasingly clear that time is winidng down. November 21st marks 1 month until my return home. A few friends and I have decided to set goals for ourselves in these last few weeks, and while it may not be very PC to say, and with the total understanding that my immediate family makes up the majority of people who read this - our goal for this week was to take advantage of our legal status every day of the week. We were successful. An added bonus to this accomplishment was that the closest pub to us, Cadogen Arms, was celebrating it's 10 year anniversary, so every night at 10 pm from 10-10:10, they had a 10 pence menu. That's like paying 15 cents for a glass of wine. It was pretty exciting.
In events that justify me being in a foreign country to study drama; Wednesday night was LAMDA's annual poetry-speaking competition where 12 students shared poems, 6 of which were original and had been narrowed down from the 20+ people that had submitted original poems and participated in the preliminary round. Among those talented 12 was our very own Maddie, who held her own as the only single-semester course student to make it to the finals with a beautiful poem entitled "Mare Serenitatis". She was unbelievable, and although she didn't win, we all agreed that it was a fabulous way to spend a night!
This weekend can be marked more-so by what I saw than what I did. For some ridiculous reason, Warner Bros didn't allow midnight premieres of Harry Potter in London (preposterous - I know), so instead we chose to see it as early as possible on Saturday morning, which was a great way to start the day (and I highly recommend Daniel Radcliff for breakfast).
Saturday night I got tickets with a friend to see Stephen Sondheim's "Passion" at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden. The tickets were standing room, which wouldn't have been so bad because of how small the theater was, but right before curtain one of the ushers asked us if we wanted to be seated downstairs to which we both responded with "uh... YES!". We ended up in the first two seats off of center in the 2nd row - not too shabby. "Passion" is not a show I knew very well, really at all, but this production, and the three leads especially, absolutely blew me away. I know what you're thinking... "Ariel liked a Sondheim musical? Shocker." but... I had always had this preconceived notion that it was a total flop, and nothing that I'd ever really be interested in, but when seats were available for £7.50, I figured - why not? And I'm so glad I did. The staging, music, lyrics, acting and what little choreography there was was utterly engaging and made the 2 hours without an intetmission seem like minutes. Two thumbs way up, Stephen.
Today was a South Bank kind of a day. We managed to get tickets to see "Hamlet" at the National early (a feat that was pretty phenomenal considering that the production sold out 1 week after going on sale), so we headed across the river for a day of Thames adventures, starting with Wagamamas for lunch. There happened to be this Christmas/Winter Time outdoor market thing happening which we perused for a bit before heading to the theatre. I guess Christmas starts early here because there's no Thanksgiving to split up the Winter, but we were happy to take in the festivities (and grab a crepe before the show). Now... I had read Hamlet countless times in school but had never had the opportunity to see it - and I am SO happy that this was my first experience seeing it performed. The guy playing Hamlet was a LAMDA grad which gave us a bit of nachus to say, not to mention how unbelievable he was in the part. He was seamless in every transition, nailed every monologue and portrayed, in my opinion, one of Shakespeare's most complicated characters with clarity and grace. There were some weak parts in the company but it was played in the same gigantic Olivier Theater where we saw Danton's Death, and still managed to be just as gripping as if it were 10 chairs in a black box. Still reeling, we left the theater to find the outdoor market still going on and the Parliament/Big Ben and The Eye all lit up for nighttime - beautiful. We made time for a quick carousel ride and hot chocolate before heading home.
So here I am, sitting at my computer putting off learning lines for Much Ado, even though I have to be off-book by tomorrow. It's unreal how quickly time is passing. I have to stop myself sometimes and remember where I am and how lucky I am to here. I guess at this point it's all or nothing and I'm ready to see where choosing "all" will get me!
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