Westminster Abbey.
As I listened to Jeremy Irons narrate the English Audio Tour for the Abbey for the second time in my life (yes I went last time too) I still get shivers when I walk up to the high altar. Its gold inlay is astonishing, the marble floors are spectacular. And it can make even the stout non believer at least tangle with the idea of the divine. I walked through every nook I could and this time, if my family stories are correct, I finally saw the site where my family was laid to rest all those many centuries ago. I even saw Frank Whittle’s grave site in the Royal Air Force Chapel (just inside of Henry VII Chapel), not sure if we’re related but it’s always cool to find your name in history. I touched the tomb of Queen Elizabeth; well I poked it as there was technically a gate separating me from her. Mary is buried underneath of her. Rivals in life, sisters in the end I guess. I stood at the feet of Darwin and Olivier, gazed at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and laughed at Sam Johnson’s stone (he’s buried upright). Westminster may never change any time soon, but even if it doesn’t it’s still amazing to walk through and take in all that history, all the people who’ve walked through its doors and kneeled in prayer at its altar. Every King and Queen coronated, married, and laid to rest within its thousand year history.
Lunch at a place called Giraffe, hummus and naan for a starter, cheeseburger for main.
Play for the night: Clybourne Park
 |
In a sort of “sequel” to Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, it was written to see what would have happened to the neighborhood after the Black family moved into it. The play starts out with the family selling the house to the African American one, though supposedly the white family is unaware who it’s been sold to. The white family is moving out (I say family but it really is only a husband and a wife, but they carry their son’s memory (burden?) with them) and is busy packing everything up back in the 1950’s. First a priest comes in then a friend who is a Rotarian. The husband, Russ, is struggling to cope with the loss and the eventual moving on with life afterwards, his wife, Bev, takes the role of a traditional 50’s housewife and brushes past any mention of him. The family is then thrown into arguments about the move, the African American family moving in and so on. Though this may seem like a dramatic situation (well it is) the way in which the dialogue is written and the production was produced—a spitfire exchange of words—it made the whole situation so farcically funny but so real at the same time.
 |
The same farcical yet real situations continue after intermission (interval) only this time the stage has completely changed from the happy 50’s home to a home in shambles in 2009. A young white couple has bought the house and is interested in renovating it as the neighborhood is now ideal. Through the exchange between them and their new neighbors, a black couple, we find out that the neighborhood fell into some bad times and then ultimately worked its way back to being the happy place to raise a family. Again the exchange brings up the question of race and housing but also adds a dash of gender roles. Without giving too much away, if the play had been produced badly with bad timing it would be just plain awful and offensive instead letting the audience escape into complete hilarity.
The acting was simply amazing too! The cast included the amazing Sophie Thompson from such films as Emma, Relative Values, and Four Weddings and a Funeral, who onstage is just amazing! Since the play took place in America the actors (being British) put on their best Yankee accents and took off running. There were only a few times where I could hear their native inflection but it still didn’t deter from what was being said, whether it be an emotionally tense moment or an awkward and funny situation. I don’t want to give any more away from the play in case you see it or read it, but I do highly recommend you do on and/or the other.
Tomorrow April 5th: Kneehigh’s The Red Shoes at Battersea Arts Center
No comments:
Post a Comment