To Stratford upon Avon, to the newly refurbished Royal Shakespeare Theatre, home of the Royal Shakespeare Company, to see Macbeth. It was a challenge to understand the words and more so, the beauty of the words. In the second half, I fell asleep....
 |
| Inside the auditorium, RST |
The stage setting was stark and foreboding, as befit a tragedy depicting the murders by Macbeth, of Duncan King of Scotland, Banguo, Lady Macduff and her children. There was a lot of blood, vividly splashed on the white night clothes of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Inside the theatre, the stage was at a level with the audience, and it was somehow surreal to see actors emerging from the audience to get onto the stage, or indeed being lowered onto the stage from hoists (with safey harness of course, the Health and Safety brigade would so insists).
 |
| Beautiful carved wood |
The town of Stratford is essentially sustained by the past efforts of one man: Shakespeare. The town centre has an abundance of restaurants, tacky tourist gift shops, and the usual high street chain stores. Thankfully, some of the original half-timbered, black and white buildings still stand. Hidden away from the thoroughfares, in small courtyards, are art galleries, touting paintings bearing price tags upwards of £2,000. No one seemed to be buying in these austere times.
 |
| A serene River Avon |
 |
| Folk dancers huddled together |
On a windy and chilly day, the River Avon was without commercial traffic. A lonely boat appeared from nowhere, with a woman rowing energetically, while her male companion looked on with approval. Along the river banks, adjacent to the Theatre, were barges selling all sorts of food and drink, quite an imaginative use of these long boats which reminded one of the industrial past.
 |
| Shakespeare's birth place |
The draw of the town is undoubtedly Skakespeare's birth place. On the outside, the house looks well preserved. We chose to see it when all the tourists had gone, when the place was closed, and when the stage was half empty of actors.
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages."
As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143
