the play is the thing . . .

Birmingham International uses the O'Hare model of overcharging for wifi at about the same rates. That's not any more appealing now than it was a couple of days ago, so I'll just type now and post at the next hot spot we find. So, whenever this gets posted, I am writing it the morning of September 4th while waiting for our flight to Glasgow. Apparently we've figured out trains. There was a station change involved. Not just a change in trains, but having to find another station to catch the next one. It really wasn't bad as there were signs from the Moore St. Station (which is the line running to Stratford-upon-Avon) and the News St. Station (the large station in town). However, I did not see any signs pointing back to Moore St. while walking to the main one. I think it would have been a long and stressful journey if we'd tried taking them fresh off the international flights.

Whatever ya'll are doing to increase the value of the dollar against the pound, please keep it up. I exchanged at $0.55 per ₤, which is the best I've gotten on anything purchased for this trip, including Hamlet tickets from last year.

After lunch yesterday, we caught the Theatre Tour for the Courtyard Theatre. It's a free tour that you should find a way to fit into your schedule if you're there. If you don't already know, the main RSC facility is currently undergoing massive renovation/reconstruction. They've replaced what used to be the “Other Theatre,” seating ~300, with a temporary main venue seating over 1,000. I knew about the construction (actually, almost booked a room in the Thistle, right across the street from the Swan, but canceled when I read it was currently across the street from a major construction project), but I didn't know that the Courtyard building itself was intended to be temporary. The RSC decided that it wouldn't make good business sense to have yet another venue that size in town, so once the renovation project is complete, down comes the Courtyard. Even if they continued casting stars with David Tennant's crowd drawing abilities, I don't think the town would have enough beds or bars to keep up. They put an emphasis on recyclable and reusable building materials. Everything is a bit bare bones, which is actually really cool. The first part of the tour takes you through all the different seating areas and talks about the history of the building and about the different stage and set options.



Behind the stalls, in the isles you walk down to get to your seats, they have cabinets full of props ready for the night's performance and make-up stations. They wouldn't let us on the stage because it was slick or something. We then got to go back stage, well, more of side stage, then through the changing room and cafeteria and stuff. The whole area is crazy well organized and labeled. The tour guide dragged us through that part kind of quickly, which is probably good. I was certainly eyeing the crown that was in easy reach and wondering if Bill would be fast enough to get a picture of me in it before someone yanked it off my head.

After dinner, we returned to the Courtyard for the play. Stalls, M-14 and M-15. The M row (last row in the stalls) and the row in front of it are a little tight. In our section there were 11 seats in each of these rows and only 9 seats in the rows in front of them. Next time we'll have a little more shoulder space. Even being in the last row, we were really close to the stage. We were also close to an isle, so I got a couple of nice, close up views of cast members. David Tennant, barefoot, runs very loudly.

The play itself was marvelous. Interesting and different from any other performance of Hamlet either of us had seen. Patrick Stewart plays both the Ghost and Claudius, and is great in both roles. Honestly, my previous favorite for the ghost was in the performance I saw in Harrisburg (Noah, did I see that with you), where there was just a voice and never physically a person walking around. Oliver Ford Davies plays Polonius and I've never enjoyed the character so much. Bill had a lot to say about the interpretation, so I'll leave that for him.

They sent us home empty handed, though. It was a cold and rainy night and the actors weren't coming out to sign stuff. Again, sorry mom! I can't say I really blame them. According to the program, this Friday's performance is slated for “Post-Show Talk Backs” where the audience gets to stay after the performance and ask questions of the cast and creative team. If I had known that when buying tickets, we'd have been going that night instead. I don't know if I would have asked whether or not the black with a red waistband underwear were part of Tennant's custom made Hamlet costume, but I'll bet there will be a lot of really interesting discussion about the performance and staging choices. I'm enough of a fan girl to have gone to stand in the chilly night by the stage door in stockings, but not enough of one to cry about not getting an autograph like a few of the women around me.

One last geeky tidbit: the guy at the end of our isle (2 seats to my right) said that this performance had actors from Star Trek, Doctor Who and Star Wars. Anyone know who was in it from Star Wars? I feel like less of a geek for not knowing that and for not being quite interested enough to actually look it up.