Some Have Greatness Thrust Upon Them!

After staying in Birmingham for a few days to catch up on homework, we moved to Stratford-Upon-Avon for the weekend for Shakespeare shenanigans. Shakespeare's birthplace has been a pilgrimage site for literary snobs for the past few hundred years, and if you don't like Shakespeare then don't go to Stratford.
It's a small town upon a river (hence the "upon Avon") with swans ready to maul you at a moment's notice. Everything seems centered around the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre, and is within a ten minute walking distance from wherever you are. This weekend we had tickets for Shakespeare's "shipwreck trilogy", or the plays whose plays are propelled by shipwrecked characters. The same cast participates in all three plays, which is impressive. The stage remains the same: boards to look like a ship floor, a huge tank of green water to represent the ocean, and a giant crane to move the set around. Things are, of course, added to the set according to the play. Everything is a modern interpretation, which means modern costumes and sets and the addition of lines (call the airport!) mixed in with the original script. A Comedy of Errors featured a militaristic seaside town, complete with soldiers with machine guns and a giant megaphone warning all foreign merchants to stay away or be killed. Twelfth Night took place in a dilapidated hotel recovering from a storm, and featured the shipwrecked twins crawling out of the water tank (made to look like a pool, complete with a diving board) and onto the stage. The Tempest, the only non-comedy performed, drained the water tank and made the stage look like a deserted island, where all of the characters are stranded.
While there were things I liked about all three, I think I enjoyed A Comedy of Errors most. It's considered one of the more difficult Shakespeare plays to perform, since it relies heavily on slapstick humor and the exposition is dull. Explaining that there are two sets of twins separated at birth with the same names can be confusing. Twelfth Night was not as funny, but had a more sophisticated plot and a fantastic set. The Tempest made excellent use of special effects, since it featured a magician as the lead, but at times hard to engage with the plotline.
After Twelfth Night we all went out for drinks at The Dirty Duckling, a pub where Shakespearean actors traditionally hang out after a show. And, indeed, the company was milling about in civilian wear among us.