Joey-Upon-Stratford-Upon-Avon

Hello all. I've just got back from Stratford, and I'm putting off doing my homework in order to tell you about the trip. I wanted to get the details posted while they were still fresh, too. It was a fantastic trip, and I have many interesting things to tell you and pictures to show you. So, let me begin.

We left on Friday at about noon on a bus and drove the 2 and a half hours up to Stratford. We were to stay two nights, seeing three plays (which I'll talk about later) and do various other interesting things (also to be detailed). So, starting with the arrival. EDIT: This is weird, but to read the next caption you need to highlight the text. I can't fix it, so just start highlighting here and drag down to read. Sorry!

This is the name of the bed and breakfast I stayed in, along with about 1/3 of the roughly 20 students and faculty on the trip. The group had three B&B's between them. I was in a room with my already-room mate Sam Fairfield and another Grinnellian, Sam Leevee. It was a nice B&B, albeit one with an awful shower. They did a nice breakfast, though. I wanted very much for the owner to be like Basil Fawlty, but he was nice and polite, unfortunately.

We left the B&Bs fairly early on to walk through Stratford and arrive at the Church where Shakespeare is buried. The program head (and also professor of the Shakespeare class) Donna Vinter gave us info on Shakespeare's family and life in Stratford.

It was a nice graveyard. If there can be such a thing.

The lecture was given as we sat by the river Avon. It is a really nice little town, and all the better since we went out of tourist season.

Unfortunately, they were doing heavy construction in the Church and this was as close as I could get to Shakespeare's grave. I know it's not much of a picture, but maybe you can imagine it. I'll include the epitaph he wrote for himself (possibly the last poem he ever wrote):

GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE TO
DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE.
BLEST BE YE MAN YT SPARES THES STONES AND
CURST BE HE YT MOVES MY BONES

The back of the church. The construction was an eye-sore, I wish they had been doing it another weekend.

More graveyard.

This is the view of the Avon from a bridge near the town centre. It was chilly when we were there, hovering in the 40s and 50s the entire time.

A swan. There were enough ducks and swans in this town to take if over if they ever organized.

That night we saw our first play, Julius Caesar, as performed in the Courtyard Theatre by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Needless to say it was excellent, though there were a few problems. They chose to have these projections in the background during the speech and battle scenes, showing hoards of Romans yelling or standing or fighting. They were really distracting, especially during the Mark Anthony funeral speech, which is my favourite speech in Shakespeare. I wouldn't go on about it (the tickets were free, so I don't want to sound ingrateful) but it plays into my story later.

The next morning was our time to visit all the tourist spots in Stratford, and I got this pictures of the Shakespeare Statue by the river in the town centre. Not much else to say: there he is.

Situated around him were some of his most famous characters. Of course, the first one I will show you I've forgotten the name of (the other two I remember). I thiiiiiiink this was King Lear. I've never read it, so maybe I'm just guessing. If anyone knows, let me know.

Not hard to figure this one out. Alas, poor Iorick.

She's a little tougher, but you might remember she had a little trouble with a certain damn spot.

Another picture-less interlude. We got out tickets for all the Shakespeare activities and went on the brief tour at the Shakespeare museum. It was narrated a series of videos narrated by Judi Dench and Patrick Stewart. I can't escape this guy. They were pretty good videos, with a number of clips of film adaptations, and they had a copy of his ring and an original first Folio. However, they were a little hyperbolic sometimes, saying he was the greatest writer basically ever. I love Shakespeare, I really do, but he is not the end-all-be-all of English literature. We owe him a lot, but not everything. Anyway.

Then we visited the house Shakespeare was born in, which has become a sort of pilgrimage for people for many years. It gets around a half a million visitors every year, apparently. Interesting enough, though with very low ceilings. My favourite part was a window that had been signed by some of the people who have visited. It had people like Shelley and Keats, so that was fun. Oh, that window is the birth-room, where it all began.

The house.

This was one of the main streets in Stratford. Nice town, as I said before.

Here is the church in which was the Edward VI grammar school, where Shakespeare learned to read and write.

A sign for the school.

Next we went to the house of Shakespeare's daughter, Susannah, and her husband the physician. This was a little bit of a bust, since it doesn't actually have much to do with Shakespeare. It was all about medicine. I just included a picture of the four humours because I think that theory is hilarious.

Ah, but then my favourite part of the trip (besides the plays). I went by myself to Anne Hathaway's cottage, which was about a mile outside of town. This was the start of the walk, which would lead through fields and neighbourhoods.

It was a cloudy, windy day, but I didn't mind. It was lovely to walk through the town, peeking into so many people's backyards.

At the cottage, there were orchards stretching out, the ground littered with apples. Almost no one was there, it really is the time of the year to go.

There is the cottage itself. Nothing too fascinating, except for the bed where Shakespeare might have made the mistake that trapped him in a loveless marriage for his whole life. Okay, that's some conjecture, but I like to think he truly disdained her.

There was a section called the orchard and statue walk, and it was so beautiful. There was no path, just rows of trees and statues donated by different artists. I'll shows you most of them.

I won't be able to remember all of the plays these reference, so forgive me. If you can figure it out, let me know.

This is meant to be Falstaff's belly.

Brutus. Or, Brvtvs, if you will.

Twelfth Night. I've never read it, so I won't judge.

?

There was a hedge maze in the orchard also, and I got to the middle of it. All that was there was this bench. I thought I might as well take a picture to remember my struggle.

The maze from the outside.

Another shot of Stratford, this one the town's Southern side from the river. They were doing construction on the other theatre the RSC uses.

So ends the pictures, but not the trip. That afternoon at 1:30 we saw As You Like It, which if you remember I had already seen at the Globe. This was a somewhat darker version, though it isn't fair to call it truly dark because it's a comedy in the end. I enjoyed this version as much as the other, some things more and some less. The show itself was better directed, I feel, than Julius Caesar, with more subtlety and no projection. Rosalind was better in this production as well. Like the Globe, the Courtyard has a projected stage so the cast really interacts with the audience. It's a joy to see Shakespeare done so well, there's almost nothing better for me.

Then it was dinner at a pub (I forget which) and another show, The Winter's Tale. Again, very good, it was costumed as if set in the Victorian period, and the set was beautiful and sad. The actor playing Leontes (who also played Caesar) was excellent, which was good since our class met with him for breakfast the following morning (this morning). His name was Greg Hicks, if anyone knows him. His name is still Greg Hicks if no one does, though. He was gracious and friendly, answering our questions about his interpretation of Leontes and his take on Shakespeare. He mentioned that he also thought the projections in JC were tacky, and gave us a bit of the politics going on behind the curtain. He really was very good to come out, since it was the last performance of TWT last night and the cast was out at a bar called The Black Swan celebrating. We actually went to the bar and saw him. So he may have been a bit hungover, but he made it anyway. Okay, I'm rambling, sorry.

Such was the trip, and I'm tired and behind on homework but happy. Well, not too behind, have no fear. But this past week has included four Shakespeare plays (we saw All's Well That End's Well at the National Theatre on Wednesday), four hours of Shakespeare classes, and two days in Stratford. I am burned out on the man, I have to say. We see Endgame tomorrow, so I'll get back to you on that. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!