As We Like It

Yesterday we visited Stratford and Warwick (pronounce that without the second w). I toured Stratford about two years ago, but it was January and COLD the day I was there. It's a really different city when you don't have to scuttle into buildings for warmth as often as possible.

Warwick boasts a giant castle that was inhabited until quite recently. It's all done up for the tourists and I kind of hated it (admittedly my traveling companions say I skipped the best part, but I did see the singing plague victims). It's very much what visiting a castle would be like if Disney got its hands on one. I'm sure it would be fantastic with kids, but I wish I'd lingered in Stratford and remembered to toss two coins into the swan fountain to snag myself a husband instead. I did take this one picture while I was there so you could see that it is very impressive despite my bad attitude. All of the people are wax creations. I'm not sure what that floating white thing is. Ghost? Camera problem?


In the evening we returned to Stratford and watched the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of "As You Like It." It was brilliant, as anticipated. I just saw the Utah Shakespearean Festival's version of "As You Like It" at the beginning of the month, and it's always interesting to see two productions of the same play by different companies. The RSC had interesting costumes. The play began with very traditional, formal, dark-colored outfits and when the characters entered the Forest of Arden, their clothing gradually became lighter colored and more modern. At the wedding at the end, they wore white (or light colored), contemporary outfits. Very nice. Here's my question for the RSC: Was that a real rabbit that was skinned on stage? It looked real.

Mamma Mia!

The Coordinatrix is sort of a burster-into-song type of gal. She and the Australians on our package tour briefly discussed hijacking the microphone at the front of our tour bus for karaoke purposes. She's like that. And that is why she was THRILLED when we discovered that a local night club/theater was hosting a Mamma Mia singalong last night. The club showed the movie, hosted by a woman in gold spandex pants (she was sort of a British TV NYC Jewish mother with her handbag and comments about how Pierce Brosnan can't sing but is easy on the eyes), and we all stood up and belted out the songs when there was singing in the film. I agreed to go to humor the Coordinatrix, but it was so fun! I'm super sad that we won't be here for the Bride and Prejudice dancealong.