Today was bizarre but lovely. I spent most of the day watching Shakespearean theatre in Dutch, which is not what I usually do in ye olde Iowa (or anywhere else). It's likely that none of you recall my blog post from 17 March 2017, when I went to a six-hour play in London called ROMAN TRAGEDIES. However, I recall it - it was a v. inventive, interesting piece of theatre, mashing together Shakespeare's CORIOLANUS, JULIUS CAESAR, and ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA into a six-hour play set in a 21st-century newsroom, replete with tickers counting down the minutes until major characters' deaths, tvs and cameras all over the stage filming and reproducing the action as it happened, etc.
So, since that production was amazing, I've followed the acting troupe on Instagram ever since, and so I discovered they were doing a one-night-only livestream of the play today. Of course, evening in Amsterdam (did I mention they're Dutch? so it's English subtitles) is morning here, and so the play started at 8am. I didn't bother to get up for Coriolanus, but I settled in just in time to watch Coriolanus die and segue into Caesar.
Watching it on TV was definitely a bit different - the audience piece of the live performance was really cool, because for most of it you could actually mill around onstage, buy a drink at the onstage bar as the play was happening, and sit in the middle of the action. But I also got to really see the actors up close, and that brought its own delights. And I could stay in my pajamas and then shower during a longer intermission, so that was a bonus as well.
Another bonus was that I somehow tricked [censored] into almost five hours of Dutch Shakespearean theatre - he came into my room to find out what I was doing just as I was settling in, and he ended up hanging out and watching. Since he got sucked in, we used a scene change to move my Chromecast from my bedroom to the bigger tv in the downstairs living room, where we were able to watch in some bit of comfort (not total comfort, since it was -5 degrees out and the heat in the basement is not totally keeping up).
Needless to say, I quite enjoyed the play, and it was a very welcome break from the same-old-same-old. However, spending five hours basically watching subtitled tv was not how I usually spend my days and it somehow took a lot out of me. So I spent the afternoon recovering a bit, and then I cooked supper - I tried a new sausage and peppers recipe from Barefoot Contessa, along with mashed potatoes, and they were delish.
My mom also came home from the hospital somewhat early because it's so cold and the roads are so bad - the road outside our house is not a priority for the country road crews, and she barely made it, Luckily it's #smalltownlife and she knows who grades our roads, so she called him to find out when he'd be starting out in the morning to clear at least part of the road. So, fingers crossed she can make it back to the hospital tomorrow or else my dad will be quite bored.
And now, I really need to sleep - goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment