I've visited Kerry twice before (when I visited London during my time studying abroad in 2011, and again when I toured Europe with my mom in 2012), and she has since come to visit me in New York for New Year's this past year. So I've done London twice, and I've done the touristy things well. A walking tour of all the palaces and the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and the parks and whatever. And I've been to the museums, and gone to high tea, and seen westminster abbey. I also went to Berlin in 2011 and did the same kind of sightseeing - walking tour, art museums, etc. - so this trip wasn't about being a tourist.
I traveled to Europe this time with a very specific intent. I came as a theatre artist, seeking inspiration and information. I arrived in London with an agenda focused on seeing theatre that would spark new ideas, and get me thinking in new ways. In Berlin my plan was to drink up as much information about Cold War Berlin and the Wall as I could. I was determined to use this opportunity to gain as much hands-on experience as possible about what life was like during the years the Wall was in place, to serve as research for my play that I've been writing since the last time I visited four years ago.
During my first few days in London, I flooded my senses and my brain with images: Mötley's show, for aesthetics and energy; Roosevelvis by The Team - my former directing teacher's theatre company - for melding disparate ideas and creating an intellectual piece; La Soiree for atmosphere and spectacle; Belarus Free Theatre's Trash Cuisine - at a secret location that included drinks and food and a post-show discussion - for making politically active, socially-oriented work that matters; and All on Her Own/Harlequinnade - a double bill from Kenneth Branagh's new theatre company - for classic theatre, well-trained acting, and strong story telling.
The Mötley Crüe show was chronicled in my previous post, so all I'll say is I am never bored at their shows, and it always makes me wonder how I can energize a theatre audience the way they get me going time after time after time. 
The next day, having fully overcome my jet lag by staying up all day Friday (despite getting to London at 5:30 am New York time), I went to meet Brandi for lunch near Sloane Square, where we were seeing Roosevelvis. We spent an hour catching up on life (she's living back in Baltimore, where she's from), and then went to the Royal Court Theatre for a show starring two women playing Teddy Roosevelt and Elvis, the latter of whom was our TA for our directing class. Roosevelvis premiered in New York, and though I had very much wanted to see it, I had unfortunately missed it back home, so I was grateful to catch it, randomly, in London. It was, as with any TEAM show, a very intellectual piece with an eclectic mix of influences. I really enjoyed the mix of time periods and timelines, something I'm figuring out how to deal with in my own play at the moment.
That evening I went to La Soiree, taking place in a tent set up on the bank of the Thames, near the London Eye and therefore walking distance from Kerry's apartment. La Soiree happened to be another show I had missed in New York, despite it playing in a theatre a block away from Fuerza Bruta where I work. The show is, I imagine, a bit like if Cirque du Soleil and Fuerza had a baby (which is funny, because I describe Fuerza as Cirque mixed with a rave). It mixes circus acts with a party atmosphere, and has a 10pm late show (like Fuerza sometimes does), which is what I went to. I bought my ticket that day on today tix, and when I got there, was upgraded from "boardwalk" to "ringside" I guess because I was alone and they wanted to fill in the front seats. No complaints on my part, I got a good seat for about half price. It was a really stunning show that did an excellent job of establishing atmosphere/energy, and expectations of audience behavior/involvement. Every performer was attractive and talented and unique, and somehow in the second act a segment about bubbles broke my heart.
Sunday, there were no cheap tickets for anything I couldn't or hadn't seen in New York (Kinky Boots, Lion King, In the Heights) so I had a lazy morning at Kerry's apartment and then went to the Tate Modern for a couple hours. The Tate has been under construction every time I've been there, seemingly preparing for an expansion that is supposed to open next June. In the meantime, however, they seem to have a lot of space with relatively not a whole lot of art in it. So after sitting by the Thames for a while watching a man create giant bubbles for the delight of passing children, I headed back to Kerry's before going to the theatre for the evening.
Sunday night was my big adventure. I had booked a ticket to Trash Cuisine, a show being performed by the Belarus Free Theatre in association with The Young Vic, part of two weeks of performances in celebration of the company's tenth anniversary. It wasn't at The Young Vic, however. True to how BFT shows are performed in Belarus, where the company is banned, the show was taking place at a secret underground location. Without a phone number to have them text the meeting point to, I asked about it at the box office (right by Kerry's) and was given an intersection to be at by 6:20 at night. It took two trains and a bus to get there, to a residential corner with a church, where a crowd of people was gathered. We were then led in groups of twenty or so down the road and around a corner into a warehouse that had been set up for the show. Inside there was music, and projections of propaganda, and we were given a token for a free drink, and then were free to sit where we wished for the show. BFT is banned in Belarus because the country is a dictatorship and BFT does work that focuses on social activism and political issues, so they have to put on their performances in secret and advise their audiences to bring their passports in case of a KGB raid, which happens fairly regularly. Trash Cuisine is a show about capital punishment, particularly the death penalty. It was very powerful, and hard to put into words. The performance was live streamed around the world from the Young Vic website, and an underground audience in Belarus watched via Skype.
After the show we were given beet root soup, traditionally Belarussian, and then took part in a post-show discussion, which took the form of an Englishman who is now a lawyer in America reenacting a death penalty case he tried in Louisianna, where he defended a couple both accused of placing their newborn baby in the freezer where it died. The jury was made up of twelve audience members, who had all stated they would be willing to sentence someone to the death penalty. It was fascinating (if a bit uncomfortable) to be a part of the discussion in a country that banned capital punishment over fifty years ago as someone from a country that still has the death penalty. The lawyer-man led us through the case, presenting information in pieces as he'd gotten it, periodically asking the audience to vote on who they thought was guilty, and asking the jury members if they would convict anyone. Ultimately, in the case, the lawyer got both parents off; neither was convicted. The whole experience got me thinking about what a vehicle theatre can be to get people talking about social issues that can be hard to talk about.
Monday I headed out of London to St Neots, sort of near Cambridge to see Shannon, my very first friend ever. We met when we were babies and we're best friends growing up until Shannon moved away in middle school. We hadn't seen each other in over ten years, and she had two adorable children now, Wyatt, who's three, and Eden, who's not yet one. They met me at the train station and we went to lunch where Shannon and I caught each other up on our lives and our families, and then we went back to the house where I was Wyatt's new favorite playmate for a few hours. Apparently after they dropped me off at the train station Wyatt cried for about twenty minutes because he was sad I was leaving. Bless his little heart. <3
I had to get back to the city though, to get tickets to All on Her Own/Harlequinnade, a one-act double bill by Kenneth Branagh's new theatre company. I'd had a lot of trouble trying to get tickets on the today tix app, but ended up with a £15 partial view seat anyway. The first play was a one woman performance by Zoë Wanamaker, who I know as Madam Hooch from the Harry Potter films. She was incredible. The second play was about a theatre company attempting to put on a production of Romeo and Juliet, with Branagh playing an aging actor who is definitely too old to play Romeo. It was really well done, and refreshing to see something light, not so dense, but still Shakespeare-influenced. And it was exciting to get to see Sir Gilderoy Lockhart in person. :)
That was my first four days in London. Jam-packed and inspiring, and just the first part of my trip. More to come as we left the next day for Berlin.
No comments:
Post a Comment