mijn koninkrijk voor een paard

I had a v. unusual morning - I woke up at 6:30am so that I could catch a livestream performance of my favorite Dutch theatre troupe. I know, most people in the US don't have favorite Dutch theatre troupes. But the group that did ROMAN TRAGEDIES qualifies as my favorite. I saw them for the first time in London in 2017 -- that show was six hours and was an amalgamation of three of Shakespeare's Roman tragedies (Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra), but the audience could mingle on stage with the performers and it was an incredible event. I saw that show again via livestream in the height of the pandemic + my dad's hospitalization in 2021, on a day when it was bitterly cold, and I lured [censored] into watching most of it with me.

Today's show was KINGS OF WAR, which had a similar vibe - it combined some of Shakespeare's English tragedies that covered the reigns of Henry V, Henry VI, Richard III, and (spoiler) the accession of Henry VII. They managed to do it in 4.5 hours (including a 20min intermission), and it was a bit trippy. Like ROMAN TRAGEDIES, the actors wore modern (well, 1960s vibe) suits and the set was decorated accordingly. But, interestingly, a lot of the action took place "backstage" - in a series of stark white corridors that wound around the main set, viewable to the audience via camera crews and hidden cameras that followed the actors through the hallways. This doesn't make sense as I explain it, but it meant they could do some interesting things with settings....the leadup to the Battle of Agincourt felt like a French rave (raucous partying, French techno, fog machines obscuring the dauphin and the French troops, who were overly confident and then lost horribly), and there was one scene with live sheep and another with a surprise baby being crowned (which may, I'm guessing, have been filmed in advance to avoid unexpected crying).

sssanyway, the play was quite good and I'm glad I watched it, but it screwed up my day a bit because I was both tired when it ended and also wired from way too much coffee and not enough food. So I slowly recovered, did a few things, ate a twice baked potato, made some eggs a little later, etc. I also talked to Veronica, which was a delight. And I made some chicken tacos in my slow cooker - it was as easy as possible, since I just dumped chicken breasts, a couple of cups of salsa, and a bunch of spices in and cooked it for four hours. I also made brown rice to go with it, and the resulting bowl was delicious.

And now, I need to go to bed and hope that I stop thinking of random Dutch words overnight -- the play was subtitled, but I heard a lot of broeder, koning, bloed, zwart, etc. and I need to get them out of my head. Goodnight!