Day 16: Magic!

Today we had a very long class talking about Gethsemane and British politics. After class Sarah, Tara, Chris and I set out to see what I’d be longing to see for ages… the Peter Pan statue. We embarked on our journey to the Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park…let me tell you this is no ordinary park…it HUGE! It covers a vast area of land. The park included a large lake full of every type of bird existing in England pretty much, even some Canadian Geese. There was also a play ground for kids based on the fantasy world of Never Land from the Peter Pan story (pirate ship, palm trees, and crocodile included). We walked all around the park in search of peter pan and the Princess Di memorial fountain. Then we found him! Peter Pan himself. It was a lot of fun seeing the statue and remembering the story and of course my favorite movie Hook. As my dad always reminded me “I AM the Pan.” After seeing Peter Pan we saw the Princess Di fountain, which wasn’t really a fountain it was more like a mini river that went around in a circle. It is supposed to represent her life journey, starting from her birth there’s a large pool of water at the top and then it bubbles down mini water falls to her death at the bottom of the river which is another large peaceful pool. It was all very nice. After we managed to find our way out of the Gardens we went to Covent Garden again and I bought 3 scarves for only 5 pounds!! Such a deal!!
Then we got back to the flat and a few of us tried to find some good pizza and then ended up rushing to grab fast-food and running to the theatre in order to make it on time to see The Royal Shakespeare Companies production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I really enjoyed this production. The RSC always does a great job at making the text of Shakespeare come alive and they make it so easily understandable. This play in general is just a fun play to see. Its full of funny scenes and it a playground for great theatre to be produced. It was directed by the same director who did hamlet with and Patrick Stewart and it is played in the same space so the stage for both midsummer and hamlet were similar. The floor and back wall were made up of mirror like metal like polished titanium or something. The midsummer set included a huge full moon that changed colors as the play progressed and it also move very slowly during the first act the other side of the stage. I thought that was so clever because you would look up and all of a sudden the moon was in a different place. In my opinion the RSC really brought the magic of midsummer to the stage. It was a fun show to see. I did realize that it’s much funnier when you see it then when you read it in a class. I did think the show was a bit long and it was even longer because the audience kept clapping during the play with in a play scene. One thing I thought was interesting was that the fairies were played by people holding baby dolls or Barbie dolls with wings on. It was supposed to reinforce the idea that they fairies were invisible…it was really obscure. I didn’t like the baby dolls I felt like it took away from the already great fairy characters. I did like how the fairies acted as the forest when the lovers were wandering around lost. I enjoyed how they played with the lovers getting them confused and adding to the mischief. Over all I really enjoyed the show. The RSC always does an excellent job at making Shakespeare come alive for the modern audience. After the show we went back to the flat, hung around, and went to sleep. ZZZZZZ
The End!