In Which Friends from my Life Before Visit Me

Had a great weekend! My friend Sten stopped by Oxford for a few days, and I had a great time showing him and his friend Nathan around.

Friday night was the BADA Talent Show, and gosh, every one was so talented! I found two more girls that can do the "stuck in a closet" voice like me. I found this both great and slightly disappointing. After, we all made a huge exodus and trekked across town to Freud, a church that has been renovated into a restaurant/ bar.

We all woke up early Saturday morning to take a trip into Stratford Upon Avon to see the matinee of Julius Caesar. Met up with Sten and Nathan at 8 am at the train station, where we were told that the information was wrong and that it would take 3 hours and 20 pounds to get to Stratford. So we scrapped the train idea and went to the bus station. We waited for the bus that would take us there for about an hour before being told that the information posted was wrong, AGAIN. We finally got a bus into Chipping Norton, a tiny little town where we could catch a transfer to Stratford, which we found out was in 3 hours. We ended up just taking a cab, but we got 5 pound tickets for the show, so it was an alright trade off.

Julius Caesar was pretty good! Probably the best use of projections I have seen on stage. The Marc Antony was excellent, and I liked the idea of using a young man to play Brutus and an older one to play Antony, in terms of dynamic. Got back into Oxford, and ate some Thai, then went over to The Eagle and Child (where CS Lewis and Tolkien had their philosophical talks) since they had never been before, and called it a night.

Sunday I gave Sten and Nathan a tour of Oxford! The highlight was definitely Will and Lyra's bench in the Botanical Gardens. It was very pictaresque; the bells from Magdelen college were ringing the whole time since it was a Sunday, and the sun was shining. Had a Q and A session with Deborah Warner, a female director who started her own theatre company in London after graduation, and then went on to direct with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and on broadway. She’s done a lot with Fiona Shaw (Medea, Happy Days, Mother Courage), and I found it really inspiring to listen to her. I especially liked her story of a Beckett play she did that got shut down because of the blocking she put in.

After our lovely Q and A, met up with Sten and Nathan once again and the three of us plus Jimmy went to Nanzo for dinner. Apparently there is only one Nanzo in the USA, which Jimmy had been to, and every one there kept shaking his hand. We all then huddled up in the tv room with a bunch of people to watch The Room, the worst movie literally EVER made. I thoroughly recommend it if you want a good laugh.