UK trip 2018 Oxfordshire continued

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Wednesday 20/6/18

Today was a family history day and, for my sins, we drove around a series of small hamlets and outer suburbs of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. Fossicking around churches grand and tiny. The honey coloured limestone and slate roofs are ubiquitous with the occasional thatched roof. Evenly, Daventry, Great Boughton and Middleton Chaney were our particular destinations.

The steak and stilton pie from yesterdays market was really good. I am a lover of pies but even SHE, who sneers at pies, was impressed.

Thursday.

We had tickets for a RSC production at Stratford upon Avon and today was the day. Stratford is less than a half hour drive north of our cottage at Stretton on Fosse. It seems to me that during the summer tourist season the theatre and opera companies only program the most reliable house filling works, so we saw La Boheme in London and now Romeo and Juliette in Stratford. The strategy does work as where else can you fill a 1050 seat theatre for a Thursday afternoon matinee in a small country town?

It was sunny but there was a chilly wind that kept us walking briskly around the beautiful parks on the Avon river. We did not really have time to “do” any of the usual tourist haunts such as Anne Hathaways cottage, the birthplace or the burial but there were many busloads of tourists doing the rounds so it would have been too crowded for us.

The play itself was totally enthralling. A really good, innovative, modern production with some gender swapping to add interest. Mercutio and the Duke were both female. The cast was quite young, particularly Juliette, as befits the character. It was a high energy performance and the young players were able to convey this brilliantly. The several fight scenes were very effectively choreographed. Romeo was magnificent, very comfortable with the language and able to convey his moods to the audience with mastery. We were both totally involved and came out emotionally drained at the end.

The RSC theatre is a total contrast to the ROH in London. It is devoid of any ornament; the total emphasis is on the play. It has a thrust stage meaning that the stage protrudes well out past the proscenium arch and there are diagonal walkways back from the stage to the audience entrance doors. This means actors can appear from multiple unexpected locations and there is a sufficient room to actually run on or off stage.

After such an emotionally draining performance we could not be expected to cook tea, so we had to wander down to the Plough for sustenance. Alison had a slow cooked lamb shoulder and is working her way through the local ciders. I had a bowl of mussels with half a loaf of fresh bread and a couple of pints of their local ale before waddling home.

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Comments

[Kate]

Mussels
You have my mouth watering for mussels and a pint. ahhhh memories of ye ol english country pub. x