Tour of the National Theatre

On Friday I took a backstage tour of National Theatre with my class. It is a very interesting place. The idea for a national theatre, a focal point for the country's drama scene, had been kicking around since the 1840s, plans finally got rolling in the 1940s, and the building opened in the 1970s (and it shows! the architecture is nothing to call home about).
The theatre complex consists of three theatres: the Olivier, which is the main stage where we saw St. Joan the other day; the Lyttleton, a smaller theatre, and a studio theatre, whose name I forget.

The Olivier is named after Laurence Olivier, who was a driving force behind the idea of a national theatre and was the theatre's first artistic director. It is a circular theatre with 118 degrees of seating around the stage, which is one of only two revolving drum theatres in the world, the other being in Vienna.

The National Theatre is a repertory theatre, meaning that more than one show is shown in each venue at a time, which often requires daily set changes. The Lyttleton theatre was designed with this in mind. Entire sets can be constructed on casters on the right stage or rear stage and then wheeled into place and lowered so as to be flush to stage level. This can allow two sets to be swaped easily, and they often have a third set that is easily taken apart and moved around the other sets.

The studio theater is incredibly flexible. It is a rectangular room with two levels of balconies ringing three sides of the room and reconfigurable seating on the floor. Plays have been held on the long transverse of the room, the short transverse, and there have even been plays held in the balconies with the audience in the middle of the room.

The theatre makes most of their sets and props in-house. We went through the workshops and saw the giant canvas frame and three movable bridges they use to paint the backdrops, as well as some of the more interesting props they've made recently. We also saw in-progress models of the horse puppets they will be using for an upcoming production called 'War Horse', about WWI seen through the eyes of a horse. Some of the horses will have three people inside: one in back, one in front, and one for the head, which will have many points of articulation. Some models will have a saddle and rider on 'horse'-back.

It was interesting to go on this tour and see how much work goes into putting on these performances. The theatre has approximately 150-200 fulltime employees, and is funded through box-office sales, sponsorships, and government backing. I am considering returning there to catch another play in the near future.

UPDATE: the dear mother found virtual tours of the National Theatre. Enjoy!

Imperial War Museum

Yesterday some friends and I went to the Imperial War Museum. Its subject is mostly from WWI onwards, as far as I could tell. In the lobby there were some impressive pieces of military hardware, including an 80ft tall terrestrial periscope tower used by the Germans in WWI, and one of the first British tanks deployed in WWI in an attempt to cut the stalemate. Also of interest were the German and Italian one-man submarines used in WWII. The German variant could carry two torpedoes, one on either side, while the Italian variant had a detachable bomb that could be detached onto the hulls of targets.

I spent most of my time in the basement level, where there were exhibits on WWI, WWII, D-Day, and a 'Conflicts since 1945' section. There were also sections covering crimes against humanity and the Holocaust. There was a walk-in lifesize mockup of trenches to walk through, which was rather interesting. They piped in smells and it was much colder in that darkened room, effectively making a more eery and uncomfortable experience, which was further amplified by well-placed speakers and life-size figures of solders. Very well done.

There were also interesting displays about the 'secret agent' aspects of war, including covert weapons and a display on the SAS' role in the 1980 embassy hostage crisis in London in which hostages were taken in the Iranian embassy. The SAS stormed in after the hostages started getting shot.

It was an interesting museum to say the least.

Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral

Today I went to evening service, called 'Evensong', at St. Paul's Cathedral. Attending the evening prayer service (I think it's the equivalent to 'Vespers' in some Catholic circles) is a free way to get inside the cathedral and walk around a little, because otherwise you get charged £9, which is a bit pricey. The interior of St. Paul's is the most beautiful church I have ever visited.
Most historic churches/cathedrals/abbeys feature varying shades of gray and perhaps brown in the interior in modern times. At one time they were brightly painted and colorful, but the paint has been worn from hundreds of years of disrepair and lack of maintenance and restorative work. While the cathedrals are incredibly stately and majestic, they're still... gray.

The interior of St. Paul's, on the other hand, is set in a stunning black, white, and gold motif. The stonework is white marble, the floors resemble a diagonally-oriented chessboard with black and white squares. Tombs and statues are in black. The contrast is breathtaking, and we haven't even gotten to the golden crowning and dome yet.
Normally, when I've seen gold in churches, I tend to think it is a little overdone and gaudy, or at least that's what I will think now that I've seen St. Paul's. The Basilica of the Sacred Heart, on Notre Dame's campus, for example, has gold features that seem very heavy compared to its tasteful yet ornate use in St. Paul's. Add to this the dark wood in the quire and the large amount of light let in through the mostly unstained windows, and the view inside this massive cathedral is truly breathtaking.

I'll be heading back there sometime soon to actually pay the entrance fee and get up into the giant dome, as I've heard the view is amazing from up there. The good view isn't a coincidence: the City of London has strict zoning requirements restricting height anywhere near St. Paul's so that it remains a prominent part of the landscape, which is what drove all the skyscrapers to the Canary Wharf area. This happens to also create wonderful views from St. Paul's dome.
I've also heard that you have to see St. Paul's before you go see St. Peter's in Rome, otherwise it's anticlimactic. I'll be travelling to Rome in a couple of weeks, so I'm pumped!

St. Joan at the National Theatre

Last night I went to see the classic English play 'St. Joan' by George Bernard Shaw at the Royal National Theatre. Shaw was inspired by the canonization of Joan in 1920. This was a big hit in the 20s and 30s, and apparently every actress would have died to play Joan in that time period.
While the play may be a classic, this adaptation was not classical. This was a modern, 'artsy' production, but not in a bad sense. From what I could tell, it was Shaw's play, but presented differently. Battle scenes were represented by banging chairs on the floor and sticks on corrugated aluminum, while the transitions were set to haunting eastern-inspired vocals.

The play itself was interesting, but a bit long-winded. One scene had three people debating at a table for at least 20 minutes, and there was at least one more scene with the same problem. Perhaps the British accent impeded my ability to follow the dialogue effectively, but the emotion behind the dialogue seemed forced and over-acted. The main actress, in addition, adopted a forced country accent which did not help her character, which was definitely played as more of a madwoman than one of strong conviction. Her acting, too, seemed over the top.

The production was interesting, but not riveting. The set was imaginative and the style was interesting, but the acting fell through on key parts. Also, the seats were uncomfortable.

Anyway, we're planning a trip to Cardiff in Wales for the weekend. Should be a good time!

Royal Residences

Over the weekend we visited both Buckingham Palace in London and Windsor Castle in Windsor, probably the two most renowned residences of the English monarchy. Neither residence allowed pictures indoors, and both required steep admittance fees, even for students, but they were phenomenal. Buckingham Palace, much of which designed by the venerable John Nash, a famous English architect, possesses an ornate interior and a somewhat unassuming exterior, while Windsor Castle, originally built as a fortress on a high bluff overlooking the country, is remarkable for its formidable outward stance characterized by turrets, cannon, and imposing stone walls.

The walls of both residences are covered in beautiful paintings by famous artists. Buckingham's great room was fifty meters long and the walls were covered in paintings, mostly acquired by one king who apparently shared my appreciation for Canaletto, as almost every other painting in the room was by him. Windsor's collection mostly consisted of portraits of the royal family by notable, known artists such as Van Dyk. There were a few here and there with other subjects, especially in the King's Bedchamber.

The king never really slept in the room, but rather was used as the setting for the Levée, or formal waking ceremony of the king, a practice made notorious by the Sun King of France, Louis XIV. I didn't know the English had also practiced this ceremony, but I suppose the royalty had their cliques and shared best practices. According to Wikipedia, the court of Charles II adopted the practice in 1762.

I will link to pictures later.

The Comedy Store

Last Monday I went to a comedy club for a charity show. It was a nice thing to do since I didn't have class the next day. The club itself was very near our classroom building, and the comedians were all top-notch. My personal favorites were Stephen Grant and Ian Stone, and most of my classmates who went along agreed.
The Comedy Store itself is an established comedy club and has been around for thirty years. Its walls were lined with newspaper clippings of the club and autographed pictures from comedians, the only one of which I recognized at a glance being Robin Williams.
It was an enjoyable show and it was interesting to see the differences in styles between the different performers, although sometimes it was hard to penetrate their varying accents and their cultural references.

Back from France

We just got done with a three-day weekend. We went to Le Mans, France for the beatification ceremonies of Fr. Basil Antoine-Marie Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. Fr. Moreau sent missionaries throughout the world, including to Northern Indiana, where Fr. Edoaurd Sorin was instructed to start a school. And that's how the University of Notre Dame du Lac came to be.

Travelling was eventful, almost to Murphy's Law proportions. The Chunnel ran late, we missed our connection, a camera was forgotten (and then recovered), a purse was stolen (and not recovered), people got on the wrong trains, etc. Knowing French would have smoothed things over a bit.

On the plus side, we got to visit the Cathedral of St. Julien in Le Mans as well as the Chartres Cathedral. Very nice places. More details and pictures later.

Map of my interesting (and banal) interactions with London

I decided to map some of my daily life here so y'all can see what's up and give you some geographic context. I'll be re-posting this map every so often with more places. There's the grocery store, and Westminster Cathedral, and the classroom building, and our 2 mile walk to class everyday, along with more! Enjoy!


View Larger Map

Canterbury

On Saturday I went on a field trip to Canterbury for my Christianity in Britain class. It was about an hour away by bus, south of London.

The city was hit heavily in World War II, but you can still see some remnants of the medieval city walls. Incidentally, the magnificent Cathedral was spared by filling it with sand, which was thought to dampen the bomb blasts, and by keeping men on top at all times to cover any inciendary elements with sand and then throw them off the roof. Luckily, they preserved this magnificent piece of architecture.

One thing you should know is that the cathedral was not built all at once. It was slowly added upon and built over, remodeled, etc., over time. As such, there is no official date for the age of the building; it has been a holy site before any records were kept.

This results in a pleasant patchwork of rooms. The front of the Church is used for regular services, while the elevated and partially-separated rear area lies on top of the crypt and has the choir section (where we heard what I assume is a high-church Anglican evensong performed by the Cathedral's boys' choir, which was beautiful and awe-inspiring, especially since we were sitting maybe 10 feet from them), as well as some historical artifacts, like the remains of the Black Knight, a medieval national hero.

Before we visited the Cathedral, we visited St. Martin's Chapel, which claims it is the oldest church continuously used for worship in England. It was supposedly originally built for King Ethelbert's Frankish, Catholic wife in AD 597. Ethelbert was the King who met St. Augustine of Kent when he came to Kent, which is the region of the country where Canterbury is. In this history lies the reason why Canterbury was the seat of the Catholic Church in England and is now the seat of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.

The chapel was also the place where the director of the ND London Program was ordained an Anglican Minister 37 years ago and was his first post.

Walking Tour of the City of London

Two Sundays ago (2-Sep) we went on a walking tour with Dr. O'Boyle. He is quite an interesting fellow and was an animated tour guide. He took us around the historical City of London.
First, we saw the dragon. Historically, the inner City of London acted autonomously and was ruled by its own Lord Mayor. It's emblem was a dragon, and all entrances to the city were marked by some sign of the dragon. When the Queen wants to enter the city proper, even today, she must stop at the dragon and ask permission from the Lord Mayor.

Later, we visited the spot where William Wallace was hung, drawn, and quartered. It used to be just outside the city walls, as executions were not allowed in the city proper, but now it is in the heart of London. Incidentally, it is also now the location of the meat market in town and is right next to St. Bartholomew's Church and Hospital, both founded in 1123 and are still going strong. The church is now a tourist spot and the hospital is a leading oncology research post, as well as being a real hospital.

We also walked by some historic pubs. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is the oldest pub in London. It opened in 1667 after the great fire destroyed much of the city. They have done minimal remodeling since then and have a beautiful interior. I haven't been there yet but want to get there soon, especially since I've heard they have pints for £1.78, a real steal around these parts. The Tipperary was the first pub to serve Guinness in England.

We also passed by St. Paul's Cathedral, where we want to go to evensong, the only time you can get in and see it all without paying through the nose. On the outside it is a very impressive building.
We then passed over the Millennium Bridge, a sight in itself. It is the only strictly horizontal suspension bridge in the world. When it was first unveiled it apparently wobbled 8-10 feet. It would only wobble about 2 inches due to the wind, but that wobbling would cause everyone on the bridge to stagger in step to catch their balance, which only aggravated the problem. Oops!

We ended the tour near the Globe Theatre, where hopefully we will soon be attending a performance of 'The Merchant of Venice' in the closest possible manner to how Shakespeare wrote and performed the plays.
After the tour was over Dr. O'Boyle invited us to a nearby pub and we had a good time. I'm glad for this opportunity and hope to both see the sights in more detail and get to know these interesting professors a bit better.

Pictures

Facebook now allows photo albums to be viewed externally if the poster so chooses.
So here is my first album of London and Canterbury pictures.

BBC Proms, classical concerts for the masses.

On Tuesday we went to a BBC Proms concert. These are a series of concerts throughout the summer. The final concert of the summer will be held in Hyde Park on Saturday, but from what I gathered most of the concerts were held in Royal Albert Hall. We got what were called "prom" tickets, meaning we were standing. I don't think a "standing room" ticket for any classical concert would fly in America, but from what I saw here in London, there were people positively giddy to be there. One person in front of us was literally jumping up and down in delight when the conductor came back for the second encore.

The Vienna Philharmonic was playing. I'm not a huge classical music fan, so I couldn't really appreciate it fully, but I did enjoy most of it. There were some parts here and there that got tedious, but otherwise it was good. Standing for 2.5 hours, though, was tough, and at least two people passed out and fell on the floor.

The season finale for the Proms was last night at Hyde Park. Official counts estimate approximately 40,000 people were in the park for the event, and it was broadcast on one of the BBC channels (1 or 2, I can't remember).

Westminster Cathedral

Last Sunday the Notre Dame program in London was welcomed to Westminster Cathedral for Mass. Note: Westminster Cathedral is Catholic, while Westminster Abbey is Anglican. The Cathedral itself is only about one hundred years old, when the Catholics were allowed the privilege again. They found a plot of land to build the Cathedral. The building itself is technically still incomplete. Some of the interior of the cathedral is unfinished, bare brick. I liked this because it gave a real focus to the inside; you knew where the important parts are because they are gilt or covered in mosaics. The blankness of some of the walls also makes the building look larger from the inside because there were parts you couldn't see.

I don't know what to think of the exterior; I dislike the busy brick look and the St. Basil's-esque quasi-onion dome look, but I like the grandeur and the classical style otherwise.

We were welcomed by a Notre Dame alum who is now a priest working at Westminster, and the sermon as well was directed towards us. Very warm and welcoming.

The music was Gregorian chant, which I normally like, but the execution was subpar. One lead male vocalist and one not-so-good organ, along with a large church, made it very hard to tell what note we were on. The lack of experience in chant of the 130 of us in the front of church didn't help either. When there was a second collection solely for the music efforts I contributed £2.

I look forward to going to Mass there again, but only as a default. Mass will be a good way to explore more churches and communities around London, but I expect we'll default to Westminster when we have no other plans.

No posts lately.

This post is to explain my lack of posts in recent days. First, my personal internet connection dropped for a couple of days, greatly limiting the amount of time I could spend on the net. Secondly, I was planning on spending time earlier tonight posting new content and/or doing homework, but as it turns out I lost my keys last night and had to go out looking for them tonight, effectively killing my evening and providing much stress before the keys were luckily found in a pub which we visited last night.

Not to worry! I have plenty of posts in the pipeline. Here's a quick rundown:

• Spamalot: we went to see this last night before going to the pub.
• Canterbury: I went on a class field trip today. Wondrous Cathedral.
• Walking tour of the city of London last Sunday with Dr. O'Boyle.
• BBC Proms: classical concert series.
• Westminster Cathedral, where we went to Sunday mass last week.

If I find time tomorrow I'll be able to knock out a couple of those, along with pictures. I paid for wireless internet access in my flats, which will make it easier to post pictures. We're planning on attending a photography exhibition in the Royal Art Gallery tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

The Wallace Collection

UPDATE: Added picture of the front of house.
On Tuesdays neither Claire nor I have class. Today we used this free time to visit the Wallace Collection, what was once the largest private collection of art in the world.

Established in 1897 from the private collection of Sir Richard Wallace, his widow bequeathed the entire collection to the nation. The museum opened to the public in 1900 in Hertford House, Manchester Square, and remains there, housed in its entirety, to this day. [Wikipedia]

About a ten minute walk from our flat, the benefactor's family house is now the museum with 24 galleries. I particularly enjoyed Canaletto's Venetian landscapes which are very similar to Francesco Guardi's I posted about earlier. Other highlights included Frans Hals' Laughing Cavalier, many intricate miniatures, one particular small statue, "Male Acrobat", was particularly pleasing. I couldn't take any pictures inside, but I do have a picture of the outside I will be posting once I download pictures, but for now it's off to bed for me!

Update: Since Friday

I'm trying to figure what type of posting schedule and format I will use for this blog. I've been working on the previous posts over the weekend, and they've gotten better since I've refactored the pieces here and there, separated topics into discrete posts, etc. While it might be better for my writing to post many smaller topical posts at once, I know from experience reading blogs that it doesn't make for the most enjoyable and smoothest reading experience. From a reader's perspective, short posts would probably best be spread out over a couple of days. Once classes start (tomorrow!), I'll see what how often I will have internet access, which will be a factor in determinging how often I post new items.

Following is a short rundown of what's happened since Friday, since most of the preceding posts are up to that day.
On Saturday night we ended up at the Sports Cafe to watch the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech ugly blowout. Drinks were expensive and the game wasn't good. Not fun.

On Sunday we went to Mass at Westminster Cathedral and then had a traditional English meal at a central London pub called the "Knights Templar", followed by walking tours. I went on the tour led by Dr. O'Boyle around the old City of London where he showed us interesting historical sights. I'll post on that tomorrow, with pictures.

Finding a Pub on Friday night

For dinner we wanted to go to a pub, but we had very little idea where to find one. After Dr. O'Boyle's talk, we didn't want to head to the Duke of York, the "ND Pub", or any of the other pubs nearby. We walked down towards Oxford Street looking for a pub, but had a hard time figuring out what establishments were pubs vs normal restaurants. We ended up down at "The Hog in the Pound" just after 8pm, which would normally be serving food, but they had karaoke on Friday nights and stopped serving food at 8. So we ended up walking up a bit more and found a more trendy, "chic" place serving fruity cocktails. We got two party platters and I got a Guinness to go along with it.

We headed back to "The Hog in the Pound" after we ate and watched some fun karaoke. The songs were mostly familiar, and the singers were, on a whole, better than I'd expect from an American karaoke experience, even though I haven't experienced a completely analogous situation in an bar stateside. I ordered what ended up being a pint of Strongbow cider which in my opinion, is a bit too carbonated and too sweet. I've had two ciders since that I've liked better but I don't know their names. All my friends, however, liked the Strongbow better than any other ciders so far.

I've yet to find a drink here I truly enjoy and would purchase again as opposed to trying something new. The lagers, ciders, and ales I drank have been enjoyable for the most part, but nothing stands out as a drink I would prefer over another or over certain beers back in the States.

In the National Gallery

Upon being released from orientation at 4pm on Friday, we took a 3 minute walk to the National Gallery and spent a little under an hour there before going home on the tube. It is a free museum and I intend to spend lots of time there. I've never found myself particularly attracted to art musuems, but then again, I've never lived so close to such a good one. One of my favorite parts about going to such a renowned musuem is stumbling across paintings I actually recognize and studying them closely.

While in the Gallery, I found a series of paintings I specifically enjoyed were by Francesco Guardi [Wikipedia, National Gallery's page] There were many urban landscapes, especially Venice. His attention to detail on the buildings make the scenes pop out to me and become much more real. He also did a number of 'architectural caprices', or made-up landscapes, that usually included ruins of arches. Neither his Wiki page nor the National Gallery's page truly captures the vividness of the prints I saw while in the Gallery, so I'll try to find some pictures online which can truly convey the image as I saw it.

On a side note, as we exited the National Gallery, an ingenious advertisement passed by. Six or seven men had a large sign on their backs, reaching perhaps 3 feet above their heads. Think of it as cutting off the front of a sandwich board, and extending the back upwards. It was the same sign repeated many times, and they were jovially talking amongst each other and the signs were jostling around among each other making its way through the crowd. It was quite interesting to see, although maybe somewhat ineffective because I don't remember what brand the advertisements were for. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture in time, but I'll look out for it and try to get a picture if I see it again.

Picture: Near the London Centre on the way to the National Gallery (in background)

Drinking Fountains and Staying Hydrated

One cultural difference that is almost immediately apparent is the complete absence of drinking fountains in London; they are considered unhygienic (considering how dirty everything else in the public space is in this city, I would probably agree). Even in the US-centric London Centre there are no fountains, only a station to refill bottles with pure, filtered water. At breakfast I totally spaced out buying a bottle of water for refills later, and as a result was very thirsty the whole morning. Between that and the salty breakfast sandwich, I was very happy when lunch rolled around and I paid 80 pence (~$1.60) for a 33 centiliter (330ml or ~12oz) bottle of Evian, which I refilled 3 times and then promptly lost. I'll have to remember to get a bigger bottle so I don't lose it as easily. I've seen some students with 1.5L bottles, but they look a bit too large and unwieldy.