A drum, a drum, Macbeth doth come…

Today was taken up entirely by a trip to the New Shakespeare’s Globe in London to see a production of Macbeth in this, the 400th anniversary year of the death of the master himself. It was a good show, to say the least.

Notable changes to the traditional way of producing it: the witches were portrayed by several women in black lace robes who manipulated various dismembered body parts (which remained scattered about the stage throughout) to form the things that Macbeth and Banquo talk to, and all of their lines were sung; the Macbeths had a (live) child of 7 or 8 years old onstage with them several times, which totally changed the vibe of a lot of the play but actually made the motivation for the murder of Banquo somewhat more believable; they tried to inject a lot more comedy into it than is usually done, especially in the characters of Duncan and Ross; and, finally, when the porter said “who’s there in the…other devil’s name,” he thereafter ‘remembered’ it and proclaimed “who’s there in the name of Trump?” While this is not a political blog, I daresay that if you’re being likened to a devil in one of the most famous plays about evil of all time, on one of the most famous stages of all time, and the whole audience has a laugh at your expense when it’s done, you are likely doing something wrong.

The acting was amazing — of course — especially, in my opinion, that of Macbeth and Macduff. The design was simple, as it must be, but the armor for the battles was really cool looking, and the ghosts were defined as ghosts by being wrapped up in the really creepy shiny black cloth and writhing about with the dismembered body parts, which was effectively disturbing. The whole thing was accompanied by live musicians with strange instruments like handbells and voices in minor keys. Overall, it seems obvious that the plays were written to be performed in that space, and it also seems obvious why they have lasted for this long.

While I was not in London for very long today, the little tastes I got in the time before and after the show were enough to make me 1) extremely excited to spend a week there once courses here are over; and, 2) pretty confident that I’ll be able to find my way around, which is miraculous. Fun fact: street signs (the ones that tell you the name of the street you’re on) are not really a thing in England or, according to my friend from Austria/Germany, really anywhere else in Europe. People just sortof learn their way around, and there are signs pointed toward all the main things.

Dinner today was celery soup (and was as weird as it sounds,) chicken something (rice and tomato something for me,) and chocolate mousse, which was amazing. After dinner I watched the Euro Cup final, and now I am preparing to start my second week of all new courses tomorrow. Goodnight from England!