Got some free tickets to the London Motor Show 2008 so I went with some guys. Good for an afternoon since I'm not all that into cars. Some of them were obviously very nice and very cool!
Well it doesn't do to be in the land of the Queen's English and William Shakespeare and not go and see a genuine Shakespeare play. It wasn't in the bard's birth town but in the centre of all things cultural; London.
Shakespeare's Globe (http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/) is an open air theatre (sort of) on the bank of the Thames. They do proper full length plays of Shakespeare and are quite popular. We (that's me, Audrey and Kirsty) tried to get tickets for a A Midsummer Night’s Dream but sitting tickets were sold out and would remain that way until September!! We could get standing tickets in "the yard" for £5 each but you have to stand up for the entire duration of the show! You can see that area in the photos, its with the octagon shaped platform. Hence, we settled on seeing King Lear. Ended up getting tickets through lastminute.com for about £25 each from memory. They were the best seats in the house and it was under cover. I'm not sure what happens to people in "the yard" when it rains but lucky for them it was a nice Spring day. We were quite high up so sometimes it was hard to hear what the actors were saying. Planes flying above didn't help either. All credit to them though as they had very strong voices and could act very well.
The seats weren't very comfortable as it was just a plank of wood; and not a very wide one at that! Sometimes the person behind you would jab your back with their toes! It was possible to get cushions as well for an extra £1 but I seriously think they should have provided those automatically for the most expensive seats!
I had done some background on the play beforehand and I was glad I did as King Lear seems to have quite an intricate plot.
Unfortunately I couldn't take photos during the play so you can see the costumes but that was well done also.
It seemed like a very long play as we got there at 6:30pm and it didn't finish until about 10pm with 30mins intermission! They were true to the play and didn't cut any bits out. It was starting to get somewhat chilly by the time it finished.
I've always enjoyed old English with its "thy", "thee" and "thou"s and it wasn't a problem understanding the play.
Maybe I will try "the yard" next time although one girl did get taken out of that area via wheelchair! Not sure why as it wasn't that hot and she didn't look old...
