"As if we're all immortal beings...on one big great adventure" - JB Priestley

(At Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace).

Today, was another great day. I successfully dragged two boys around London, figured out the underground system, saw play #2 and had a great time!

Class today was really discussion about A Little Night Music from last night, and then prepping us for Time and the Conways (Which was tonight), and Arcadia (Tomorrow, SOOO excited), and War Horse on Thursday. Reason we had to prep for all of those was because Paul Ready is coming tomorrow to teach us how to speak more easily in Shakespearian language. Should be Awesome! He was one of the lead characters in Time and The Conways (He played Alan), did a fabulous job, and I cannot wait to meet him tomorrow. 

After Class Kyle, Alex, Geoff, and I went to get pizza from this place that Clum recommended. They were ready made every day and completely different. I got potato and artichoke pizza, which was interesting, but very good. We ate in a park off of Gray's Inn Road, which was really nice. then we went back to Waitrose (the nicest grocery store around), and got some stuff. I got peanut butter and jelly and bread to make sandwiches for lunch instead of eating out. Then, no one really wanted to do anything, and I said, "I'm only in London one time," so I grabbed as many people as I could....Kyle and Geoff, and convinced them I knew where I was going and we hopped on an underground. We jumped off after awhile and got to Buckingham Palace and all the other stuff around there. WE just checked everything out and looked around. Then, instead of walking, we jumped back on the tube and took it over to Parliament, which brought us RIGHT NEXT to parliament. We literally walked up the stairs face to face with it. Walked around it, checking in out, and were like, well, let's just check how expensive a tour is, and the lady was like it's about a 30 minute wait, but it's free. So we jumped on that. Turns out not for a regular tour, but we went through security and waited in a couple lines and then next thing I new we were behind a glass partition watching the dudes in the House of Commons debating! They'd get all fiesty and you see them all try to interrupt each other and say "hur ha ha hur ha hura hea yeah hur" it was pretty cool! and then we went and got to see the same thing in the House of Lords. It was really cool. The last time I was in London, I don't think Congress was in session, so we go to see the rooms, but not them in action. It's weird though that not all of them have to be there though.

Then we headed over to the theater just so we knew we'd be on time. We found a sushi restaurant called Ping Pong, which was very good and interesting, but expensive (as usual). The only bad thing that happened was that when the waiter asked us if we wanted dessert, I played a trick on Kyle and asked "Hey Kyle Don't you want some expresso?" Because he had some the night before and then couldn't fall asleep until like 3 am. and he said "Oh God, no" and we think the waiter thought we meant the restaurant was bad and he didn't come back for like 30 minutes to give us our check. I felt bad and told him it was delicious, but he wouldn't look at us anymore. well...we're just stupid Americans anyway. 

Time and the Conways

The interesting mechanism in this show (A dramatic comedy, take that for an oxymoron) was family. It was amazing how much work the cast had done to get that family feel. It's extremely hard to recreate the way a family behaves around each other and no one else, the way family members look at each other like they are family, the way they move and behave because they feel at home. It's extremely difficult, and the cast of Time and The Conways was phenomenal at it! I was blown away by how they merged together, despite all of them having such interesting stories of their own and leading parts.

Rupert Goold took some huge liberties with the sci-fi, the twilight zone -esque, techniques at the end of each act, and for awhile it bothered me because it, first of all, wasn't scripted, and second-of-all, didn't really further the plot any because I already understand everything that was going on. I'm very anxious to hear Paul Ready's take on all the technological stuff because, though it was absolutely incredible, seemed oddly placed.

Act 1: 1919, Kay's 21st birthday. We get a family of six children, a single mother, and a few friends at a party, in a separate room though, dressing up for a game of charades. (I like how they say it here: "sharodds.")  They are all young, happy, bubbly, excited, dreaming and hopeful about the future, but covering themselves up with clothes they don't fit in (symbolic). Kay, a writer, sits to write in her notebook, when comes under a extreme twilight zone moment, and everything completely FROZE! With papers falling to the ground, and Carol's (well, technically Kay's b-day present) scarf stuck mid-air (that looked SO cool), and the stage rotated, with everything frozen. SO COOL.

Act 2: Almost 20 years later. 1938. We see what has become of each of these characters, how differently anyone would have expected them to be. The prettiest daughter who could get all the boys is stuck with a short and stout abusive husband, Robin (the favorite son) treats his wife and children cruelly, leaving for months at a time. Madge is completely alone, stiff, and mean (which we find out later is her mother's fault). Carol is dead (the youngest, happiest and most full of life). Kay is extremely bitter, unhappily trapped as a journalist, angry, and miserable. Alan, the oldest, seemed almost to be the least changed, though he did seem sadder and more lonely (his love was taken by Robin, who ruined her). And the mother is left broken, poor, and hating all her children. After everyone has left, Alan quotes an author to Kay who spoke of how life possesses both woe and joy and understanding that both will be existent in life, "safely through the world we go," and it seems to comfort Kay. She goes over to a mirror. and suddenly the house is broken apart, flies away, and there are seven Kays in front of seven identical mirrors copying her movmeents at different times. It was incredible. 

3rd act: Picks up in 1919 where Act 1 left off, but with a changed Kay because she realizes something has happened, but isn't sure what. When the family decides to discuss what everyone's future holds, and characters begin to speak of their dreams, Kay starts freaking out because she realizes it's not going to be anything like that and that everyone will be miserable. She turns to Alan and says "Alan, there is something you wanted to say to me. Something that would make it more bearable," but of course Alan doesn't know what she's talking about, nor has read that author yet. Everything gets all twilight zone-y and Alan finally admits he feels that one day he will have something important to say to her (safely through the world we go), and then the two are in from of a hologram machine. Each of them is moving in time, in different ways, but sometimes they are moving with each other, sometimes they're moving with their future selves. Sometimes future Alan is moving with Past Kay and vice versa. IT WAS CRAZY. Unlike anything I've ever seen before. Yet strangely, odd. 

(Sorry, I gave so much away Mom, I gotta remember somehow!)

Common themes: family. living life to the fullest. we cannot control time. time has us. 

quotes I liked:

"Kay I think you're wonderful" 

"I think life is wonderful."

"I think you both are" 

-Carol and Kay

"She said she was tired of everything"

-Hazel

"A seed is easily destroyed but it may have grown into an oak tree"

-Madge, seed destroyed by her own mother.

"As if we're all immortal beings."

"Yes, on one big great adventure."

-Kay and Alan.

"The point is to live."

-Carol

One thing that struck me was how old they all seemed in 1938. I mean they were only 20 years old, the oldest, Alan, was 44. At first this bothered me because 44 year olds don't act super old, but when I thought of the turn of events that brought them to their new prospective lives, I realized that it was those events that prematurely aged them. and so that worked.

The other thing I enjoyed was the technical side of it. They showed the same exact house twenty years later and it had different wallpaper and furniture but you could still tell it was the same house and that looked extremely cool. The girls wigs were fabulous. I had no idea they were wigs until the seven Kays came out. They each had two, and none of them looked fake. And the sci-fi stuff of course was really cool.

Something is still bothering me a little, but I cant really put my finger on what. Maybe we'll have time to discuss it more with Paul tomorrow and I'll understand. 

For now. i need bed, badly.

Tomorrow: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. I am definitely excited about this one. should be amazing.

Again I just want to reiterate how awesome London theater is. They can do whatever they want, try new things, and it can totally work. I am so thankful and blessed.

Much love,

Rebecca