rambling
So, yesterday I rand away to London and met up with 2 groups of somewhat overlapping LJ friends, the bunch of folk who had tickets to see Hamlet at the RSC (I had just scraped in) and an impromptu gathering of Usual Suspects plus ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jonem and patsyrant. We were slightly wrongfooted by the discovery that All Bar One on Dean St. has very recently become a Mexican restaurant, but eventually we found an incredibly pleasant pub with lots of seats.
Was a very laid back and amusing gathering and I felt all warm and fuzzy towards all these internet folk who cross over into being living, breathing and usually laughing beings. You are lovely, oh f-list.
Anyway. Got to the RSC, slightly downcast because of Tennant's absence, and the manager came on, as the lights went down, to announce that the part of Hamlet would be be played tonight by ...David Tennant!!
\0/ \o/ \0/
He was marvellous. I, er, had never seen Hamlet before or indeed studied it in English Lit, so apart from the very famous speeches and cursory knowledge of the plot, it was all entirely new to me. That Ophelia's a bit of a damp sqib, isn't she?
(I felt a bit like the ultra-competitive English Lit professor in David Lodge's campus novel who plays a parlour game called 'Humiliation' where you win by naming a really famous piece of literature that you've never read. OMG! I just checked this and he wins by naming 'Hamlet'...but then loses his job).
It's probably unfashionable to say this but I found it really exhausting to watch - I had to strain so much to listen to the language and understand what was going on; but the players - and David Tennant in particular - did a wonderful job of making the words fly.
I generally fail at being a proper LJ type though. Various people yesterday asked me what books/films/TV I was into, and there's really not much; and all the lively chat about fantasy novels or the most recent series of Merlin/True Blood/whatever soars right over my head. I can't catch up (there's a lifetime of stuff) or indeed keep up (there's more stuff all the time). I'm more or less reconciled to that, but it's odd. I'm used to being the most bookish person of my acquaintance and in many of your terms, I'm not really off the starting blocks. Still. I have a rich inner life. Heh.
jonem and patsyrant. We were slightly wrongfooted by the discovery that All Bar One on Dean St. has very recently become a Mexican restaurant, but eventually we found an incredibly pleasant pub with lots of seats.Was a very laid back and amusing gathering and I felt all warm and fuzzy towards all these internet folk who cross over into being living, breathing and usually laughing beings. You are lovely, oh f-list.
Anyway. Got to the RSC, slightly downcast because of Tennant's absence, and the manager came on, as the lights went down, to announce that the part of Hamlet would be be played tonight by ...David Tennant!!
\0/ \o/ \0/
He was marvellous. I, er, had never seen Hamlet before or indeed studied it in English Lit, so apart from the very famous speeches and cursory knowledge of the plot, it was all entirely new to me. That Ophelia's a bit of a damp sqib, isn't she?
(I felt a bit like the ultra-competitive English Lit professor in David Lodge's campus novel who plays a parlour game called 'Humiliation' where you win by naming a really famous piece of literature that you've never read. OMG! I just checked this and he wins by naming 'Hamlet'...but then loses his job).
It's probably unfashionable to say this but I found it really exhausting to watch - I had to strain so much to listen to the language and understand what was going on; but the players - and David Tennant in particular - did a wonderful job of making the words fly.
I generally fail at being a proper LJ type though. Various people yesterday asked me what books/films/TV I was into, and there's really not much; and all the lively chat about fantasy novels or the most recent series of Merlin/True Blood/whatever soars right over my head. I can't catch up (there's a lifetime of stuff) or indeed keep up (there's more stuff all the time). I'm more or less reconciled to that, but it's odd. I'm used to being the most bookish person of my acquaintance and in many of your terms, I'm not really off the starting blocks. Still. I have a rich inner life. Heh.