I had a pleasant drive out to Stratford, pretty much on major highways all the way. I am spending the next two days here attending some plays: two Shakespeare productions tomorrow and Chekhov's The Three Sisters on Sunday afternoon. I am also signed up for a backstage tour of the main theater complex (pictured above) and a lecture/ discussion with lunch tomorrow.
It's been over 70 years since a local won the grass-court Wimbledon tune-up at Queen's Club, but Andy Murray prevailed today against American James Blake to end that drought. I'm sure folks in the U.K. are hoping mightily for a repeat of such success three weeks from today in SW19.
I watched a good staging of Macbeth this afternoon, interestingly set in central Africa in the middle of the 20th century. The show was a appropriately dark, with some good acting complementing the pyrotechnics and strong production values.
Tonight I saw Julius Caesar on stage for the very first time, having read the play first as a tenth-grader and then again for my Yale course two weeks ago. This production has gotten mixed reviews, in part because the costumes don't seem anchored in any particular era (togas are mixed with modern dress). I found the show credible, though, even if the acting was a bit stiff in places.
The last play I saw on this trip to Stratford, Ontario, was Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters. In the past six months I have also watched productions of The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard. But this show was the most satisfying of the trio. I think I liked the play itself better than the other two. And the cast in today's performance was terrific. Of the quartet of Chekhov's masterworks, I have only Uncle Vanya left to see now.
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