A few weeks ago, after some questioning of some of the English faculty at my school from me and a few friends, we were handed letters to visit Stratford-upon-Avon to see Much Ado About Nothing, and it would be an understatement to say we jumped eagerly at this chance. Not only were we going to watch a Shakespeare play in the town that Shakespeare was born in, but we were going to view it performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which was an overwhelmingly exciting prospect. Despite my hopes for this trip being extremely high and wishing for it to be the amazing experience that I had sold to me by numerous individuals, I was not surprised to find they had exceeded these hopes and it stunned and shocked me to believe this was even possible.
After the mini tour from my English teacher (and a few "witty" and "punny" jokes about me driving and my last name), we made our way to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre to meet up with those who chose to not go on the tour and stayed in McDonalds instead. Here we congregated outside the building while the teachers delegated tickets to the students so we could all find our seats before the show started. Due to us having a little bit of free time before it starting we were allowed to have a wander around the building to visit the shop, go to the cafe or go straight to our seats. My group of friends and I went to the cafe to get drinks and refreshments for during the show, and on the way back we found a tiny fountain that people had thrown coins into and made a wish. Naturally we dug out some coppers and made a wish and flicked our coins into the fountain. Upon doing this, we noticed the architecture of the room designed with a spiral staircase, so we admired the majesty of the room as well as some of the period costumes that had been used within the Shakespearean plays that had been performed within the theatre.
At 4pm, around 50 students and a handful of staff piled onto the coach to drive to Statford-upon-Avon, and the journey was an experience and a half. Being of the age where I can drive, I decided to take a theory test book and a Highway Code with me to make use of the time revising; however, it was not all simple as I had imagined. After setting off, I pulled my book out of my bag and started reading, just as the opening credits for a film was being played on the TV screens within the coach, which just so happened to be "Blended", a film that it just so happened I really wanted to watch in cinema, but never got round to it. Although I was determined to do some theory practice, so I stuck in my headphones and listened to Taylor Swift on repeat and got my head stuck down into the book. Then after doing what I considered an ample amount of revision for that trip, I opened up my theory test app on my phone and did a few practice theory tests (failed 2, passed 1, but it's the first one I've passed though so good news). By the time is got to the end of my third test, we were finally and officially in Stratford-upon-Avon.
After the journey, the first port of call was food, so we all went to McDonalds. My group of friends and I didn't actually stay in there for too long as the group had been offered the opportunity to walk around the town for 15-20 minutes and see the historical sites that there were to see. On this miniature tour (being led by my English teacher who had visited several times previously on other similar trips with other students) we got to see the birth and death place of Shakespeare, two separate locations, which were surprisingly not very far from each other. The architecture of Shakespeare's birthplace and the buildings around it were kept in a very good condition, as if they were new and we were living in Shakespearean times. We all had a group picture (of those who decided to go on the little tour) in front of Shakespeare's childhood home, then moved briskly on (after a small discussion about Shakespeare's childhood home, the architecture and the preservation) to the death place of Shakespeare. Unfortunately, it is no longer there due to being demolished prior to his success, yet the site of the building has been preserved. Here we discussed the works of Shakespeare and how he hadn't always lived in this town, but wanted to move back to die. Then we looked at some of the buildings in the area and how they seemed to fit in with the Shakespearean buildings that we had just visited, noticing how some of them seemed to be (and probably were) buildings that were built around the same time, but had been furnished modernly to suit the needs and function of the things that occupied them.
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| Shakespeare's birthplace and childhood home in Stratford-upon-Avon |
As we made our way up the stairs to our seats, we admired the photographs that were placed on the walls, to show shots of the different plays that had been performed in that theatre over the years, with some the people who acted in it in shot. They all looked so professional and made me think how in character they appeared; where, if the camera quality and setting was not taken into consideration, they could've been taken at when the plays were actually set. When at our seats our view was phenomenal, se were slightly off centre on the front row of the top level. From these seats we could see everything without an obstructed view or awkward angle, meaning that we could fully enjoy the Shakespearean experience and the play as a whole.
The play as a whole was very good: the story was funny, the acting was flawless and the atmosphere was amazing. As I went in with an open mind on the play,due to having very little prior knowledge to the story before watching it live, I enjoyed it a lot more than i had anticipated I would. The actors that played the characters in the play executed their roles perfectly and really got into character, making you believe that you werent watching a scripted play, yet it was something that was actually happening there and then. Also, due to the play being a comedy, with many funny parts featuring through the entirity of the play, the atmosphere was very lighthearted, making it a much more enjoyable experience as you feel you are more involved within the play yourself.
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| The view from our seats in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre |
After the play was over, we walked back to the coach and made the long journey back home, killing the time with a mixture of watching The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, listening to music, revising for my theory driving test and sleeping (as it was really late at night). Overall, I really loved the trip to the theatre and everything that we saw and did while we were there. I definitely want to go and see another Shakespeare play performed live like this in the future at some point, and I definitely want to see Much Ado About Nothing again. I would highly recommend that everybody should go and see a Shakespearean play performed by such an amazing company as the RSC itself. I really enjoyed the experience myself, and I would go as far as to say I am hooked to going to see Shakespearean plays here, despite having only seen one to date. I will definitely be going back to see more in the future, and I would strongly recommend you should too.
Megan x
