This weekend, I did something highly out of character:  I went on a spontaneous trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon.  There was no forward planning, no week to think about it, I just went.  Decided Friday afternoon I was going and left Saturday morning.  I went, of course, in order to see a play.  Yesterday I was looking up what shows would be on at the RSC (the theatre company in Stratford) while I was here and discovered that one of the current productions is Marina Carr’s adaptation of Hecuba.  Considering how much I love Carr’s play By the Bog of Cats (if you haven’t read it, you definitely should) I really wanted to see this show.  So I bought a cheap standing ticket, figured out how the trains worked, and went.

Hecuba didn’t disappoint.  I haven’t been that moved by a show in a long time.  It was performed on a deep, nearly bare thrust stage (oh how I love a good thrust stage), with a floor treatment that looked like black granite (I desperately want to know how, or even if, they painted it.  Sorry, sometimes the technician in me comes out.)  The actors prowled around each other, narrating their actions and subconscious thoughts to the audience, speaking their own and each others lines as if they were telling a story, rather than talking.  The show was glorious.  It was spare and beautiful and so very powerful.  I left the theatre reeling.

On a lighter note (and in another breech of character), I also took several pictures while in Stratford.  Look!

See?  I am trying.  Photography is just not my thing.

In other news, I have made it through two whole weeks of classes (though I may not survive my Shakespeare class in the end – I’m being bored to death.  Everything we go over I already know), and I managed to kill a spider all by myself! (It was fairly large and, yes, there was some shrieking, but I did it.)  If you know me, you know that was a major victory.  If you don’t, trust me when I say it was.  I’m also stage managing a show called No Such Cold Thing for 3BUGs, one of the theatre societies on campus. It’ll be nice to get back to stage managing, though it’s a little less formal than I’m used to.  First read through is Sunday.  It’s a fairly short play, with a cast of only three, and I really like it.  It’ll be fun.  Now, I’m going to go finish reading all my required books for next week.