a little bit of Theatre

This evening a group of us decided to hit up the London Theatre scene away from the big-budget grand musicals, and seek after some contemporary plays. We chose a Swiss play that premiered in March at the West End with Ralph Fiennes called God of Carnage (Wikipedia it to find out more about the plot). The play was itself was a pleasant experience, with witty lines and an engaging plot. But what really got to me was the whole experience of the theatre. There really is no other art form that equals it. As my professor put it on Monday, the attraction of the theatre is the audience participation; almost as if the actors and the audience are experiencing the story together. I loved climbing up to our seats in the top row, and feeling anxious as the lights dimmed and the curtains went up. You are skeptical for the first few minutes, unsure of whether or not it will be any good. Unlike a movie, the players are right there in front of you and they respond to your laughs and cheers. They feed off of your reactions. Thats why it has endured as an art form for thousands of years. There is something in the experience of the theatre that you can't get anywhere else. We are planning on seeing another play on Thursday evening called The Pitmen Painters, written by the same man who wrote Billy Eliot. It premiered this week in London after a successful run in Newcastle.
Another slice of British life that I have pondered over today is the adventure of riding the Underground system anywhere I need to go. A few days ago we were headed to Westminster Abbey to walk around and at one of our stops a man jumped on with a Ukulele and started to sing. The tube is a very quiet place. No one talks to one another; there is no whistling or smiling aloud. Its almost an unwritten rule. So this man jumps on with a huge smile on his face, strumming his ukulele and hoping that someone will give him a pound or two. He asked us all to sing along (no one did) and walked up and down the aisle trying to sing the Monday blues away. There were a few reserved smiles on the tube rider's faces but no open grins. I remember one lady in particular, perfect makeup on her face, who just stared up at while he sang with a slight smirk. It was neat to have an experience like that where the usual seriousness is blown away with a few corny songs and a grin. To my surprise, the tube riders were generous and the man stepped out a few stops later. This evening riding back from the play, I made a point of observe my fellow passengers. The woman across from me was reading a book called The Egg and I. I've never heard of it but she seemed to be enjoying it. There are a lot of readers on the tube, mostly newspapers but some book. However, every book I see appears to discuss some mysterious, intellectual topic like Indian Philosophy, and not be the latest bestseller. On the way over to the play, we were jammed into a delayed train, which forced us to be pushed against the walls with less than inch in between us and our fellow passengers, kind of like cattle waiting for the slaughter. Its kind of interesting to think that you can be pressed next to someone for a full 20 minutes and not know too much more about them than the type of perfume they wear or what they like to read.
Tomorrow we are going to Hampton Court, made famous as the residence of King Henry VIII and at least some of his six wives. It is said to be haunted by his fourth wife, Katherine Howard who was beheaded at her husband's order. We shall see.