London — Page 2

London, Part Four

November 4, 2018 at 9:06 am by Claudia

Oh, great. We just got over jet lag and now we have to deal with another time change. The clock on the cable box tells me that we got up at 4:30 am, though our bodies thought it was 5:30 am. A wee bit too early for my taste.

Rehearsal in the city went well yesterday, but it was very rainy around here with high winds, so it was the kind of day that took all our energy to navigate. Today is sunny and much calmer. But all of the wind and rain over the course of the past week has taken down most of the leaves. I see a lot of bare trees out there.

Okay. Back to London.

On the day after our magical experience with Ian McKellen, we got up, had breakfast, and headed to Sloane Square.

Right by our local underground station.

Right outside Sloane Square station is the Royal Court Theatre. This theater is known for producing groundbreaking new plays over the years, including those by Caryl Churchill, who wrote Top Girls and Cloud 9. I’ve acted in Top Girls and have coached it more than once. She’s a brilliant playwright. It was really neat to see the theater for the first time – I’d forgotten it was situated in Sloane Square.

We meandered down the road until we found the little side street where John Sandoe Books is located. I spoke about this, my favorite bookshop in all the world (so far), in an earlier post. But for those who didn’t see it, here are a couple of photos.

It should read: John Sandoe Books LTD: Heaven on Earth.

Could I spend all day there? Most certainly. Both of us bought books and Don said that he could spend hours there and Don usually gets antsy in bookshops after about 10 minutes and ends up waiting for me outside. We sort of split up upon entering the bookshop, each of us exploring a different area, thumbing through books, overwhelmed by the sheer number of books on so many subjects. A big thumbs up from both Claudia and Don.

Afterward, we decided to head toward Westminster Abbey. As we emerged from the Tube near Parliament, we decided we had to eat first.

We saw this pub.

The Red Lion. It looked promising. We were escorted downstairs to the dining room, which was incredibly charming – as was the entire pub. This pub has quite a history; Dickens and Churchill frequented it. It’s very near Parliament.

We ordered a pie – typical fare for a pub lunch – but our pies were vegetarian! Full of mushrooms, with an incredible crust.

This photo doesn’t do it justice, but that crust was a beautiful shade of brown and the pie was delicious – as were the chips and vegetables. I wish I had one to eat right now!

Happy husband.

Contented wife.

After a nice, long lunch, we headed over toward the Abbey.

Part of Parliament. You can see some of the scaffolding on the left.

Gorgeous building.

But as we worked our way toward the entrance of the Abbey, we learned that it was too late to enter that day. Their closing hour is earlier than St. Paul’s. So we walked around and took some photos.

It’s stunning, of course.

I’ve been there before, but that was over 20 years ago.

We decided we would go to the Abbey the following morning.

More tomorrow.

Happy Sunday.

London, Part Three: King Lear

November 2, 2018 at 11:14 am by Claudia

When last we met, Don and I were going to take a quick rest before heading to The Duke of York’s Theatre to pick up our tickets for King Lear.

We did. Then we dashed across the street to get a quick bite to eat before the show started at 7 pm. Lear is long, usually about three hours, and this production was no exception. Our tickets were in the Royal Circle, which is the first balcony. It isn’t a high balcony and we were seated smack-dab in the center, so it felt like we were right there. Couldn’t have asked for better seats (of course, we picked them out online.) It’s the most I’ve ever spent for a theater ticket. It was worth every penny.

Yours truly holding her program.

I chatted with the person sitting to my right, who happened to be in London on business all the way from Salt Lake City.

Then the lights went down and we were transported for the next three hours.

Let me get my thoughts on the production as conceived and on the supporting cast out of the way. It was in modern dress. Kent, a male character, was played by a woman, the brilliant Sinead Cusack (side note: married to Jeremy Irons) and though I don’t normally go for that kind of thing, with this particular character it worked. She was great. The actor who played Gloucester was also quite good, as well as the actor playing the Fool. The actress playing Goneril, the eldest daughter, was very good. My big issues were with the other two daughters. For some reason, the director and actress playing Regan decided to make her a drug-addled alcoholic with a major personality disorder and none of that was evident in the first scene or two but emerged later in the play and I was left wondering…”What?? Where did that come from?” She had so many ticks, both physical and vocal, that I wanted to scream. The end result was that the text was broken up in a way that made the lines impossible to follow and both Don and I were left with the feeling that it was a totally self-indulgent characterization and performance – the kind of flashy performance that I’m sure some critics loved, but that, in reality, stole focus from the storytelling and wasn’t entirely supported by the text. And the actress who played Cordelia was almost impossible to understand. Why cast someone who can’t articulate well onstage?

But the star was Sir Ian McKellen. He was light years beyond everyone else. He is 79 years old, tackling one of the greatest and hardest roles in Shakespeare and he triumphs.

I’ve never seen anything like it. In my over 40 years in the theater, I have never seen anything as great as that performance. He was simply stunning. As Don said during intermission, “We are witnessing greatness.”

I’ve seen Lear before. I’ve coached it. And I’ve seen very good actors play that role.

But this, this performance, was so beyond anything I have ever seen or hoped to see. Brilliant, heartbreaking, funny, sad, gut-wrenching. Every moment fully realized. Nothing superfluous. Not one self-indulgent moment. Only truth, fully honoring the text and Shakespeare’s words.

The greatest performance I have ever seen.

It was an honor and a privilege to be in the audience that night, seeing a master at work. For he is that. There’s no one better. I count it as one of the peak moments of my life.

The audience roared during the curtain call. How could they not?

Afterwords, we walked outside, and stood there – stunned.

The stage door was just a few feet away and people were gathering to get a glimpse of him. We work in the theater and we’ve worked with a lot of famous people, so we don’t usually do that sort of thing. It always feels awkward to us; we don’t feel comfortable bugging a fellow actor. But we stayed there for a while, holding our programs, thinking that this time we just might break our rule. Other actors came out. Not McKellen. I said to Don, “He must be exhausted. Maybe he snuck out another exit.” But someone told us that a guy had apparently come out – probably the equivalent of a bouncer/bodyguard – and said that McKellen would appear, but he wouldn’t do selfies, etc. He’d just sign programs.

After more time went by, we looked at each other and thought we should probably move on. We walked about 50 feet down the street and heard some noise from the group waiting at the stage door. So we doubled back.

He came out and started signing programs.

I’ve lightened this photo a bit so you can see him.

Eventually, I moved to the right and it looked like he was ready to leave, so I figured he had stopped signing. He met my eyes and reached for my program and signed it. I thanked him for his performance. Don had appeared in the meantime and he looked at Sir Ian and said what he had said to me earlier: “We witnessed greatness tonight.” And Sir Ian looked up at Don and humbly said a quiet “Thank you.”

We were so lucky to have those brief moments with him. I will treasure that memory always.

This is going to get framed. You can bet on it.

Afterwards, we walked around Trafalgar Square, talking about what we had just seen, marveling that we got to see it live, in London. That we got to meet him and speak with him.

The National Gallery.

St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Then we flagged a cab and headed back to the hotel.

I have a story about that night. A few days later, I got a message on Facebook from a guy that was in my class in graduate school. He was my first acting partner when we studied for our MFAs at Temple University. We graduated in 1986 and I haven’t seen him since then, though we’re friends on Facebook. He lives in Chicago.

The message said: “Claudia! Did you and Don just see Lear in London??? I think I just saw a couple there who looked like you!”

I of course answered that we did and was he there?? He was. With his wife. He has family in London and he had purchased his tickets months ago and was waiting out front for his cousin when he thought he saw us walking away from the theater to get something to eat. He looked for us during intermission and when he didn’t see us, he thought he must have imagined it. In fact, he had wanted to run after us when he saw us before the show but his cousin had the tickets and he didn’t want to miss him.

What are the odds that we would both be at the same performance of King Lear in London over 32 years after we graduated from Temple??? I’m so sorry we didn’t connect! So was he. He agreed that it was ‘the performance of a lifetime.’

A few days after that I saw him tagged in a post on Facebook written by his wife. They were celebrating their anniversary in Paris, just as we had celebrated ours in Paris the week before.

More evidence that it is indeed a small world.

Happy Friday.

London, Part Two

November 1, 2018 at 9:50 am by Claudia

Good morning! I mowed yesterday and it was a wee bit tiring! Lots of long grass, but it’s done and I’m hoping it’s the last time I have to do it this year. It was good to get the exercise, as we’re now used to walking a lot and I don’t want to get too sedentary.

But, now that I bring up walking, by the time we hit Wednesday in London, we decided to take it easy. We had been going full throttle since we left for Paris. My sinuses were acting up. Don felt unorganized and, after doing laundry by hand in our hotels, was sick of waiting for things to dry. He decided he was going to go to a laundromat and do our laundry. Bless him. I just read and took it easy. Then, when he came back, we made the move to our upgraded room and settled in there. One of the hard parts of traveling for us is living out of a suitcase. Our first room in the Holiday Inn had very little storage space and Don had a real need to get everything in its place, which I must admit, I felt as well. It’s also important, we have realized, to schedule a day of rest. Our muscles were tired. We were tired. There’s so much visual stimulation, so much information coming at you – the day of rest was essential.

After all that was done, we took a walk and meandered around the neighborhood. But that’s about all.

Love the wood, the tile and the light fixture.

Regent Street was preparing for Christmas.

Gorgeous.

Why can’t we have mailboxes like this? Bright red, great shape, cheery!

The next morning we felt re-energized and ready to roll. We headed to the tube with our Oyster cards, asked for directions, and started on our journey to a very special place.

A side note: The Tube and the Metro are so much cleaner, brighter and just plan nicer than the NYC subway system, where both Don and I always feel we have to take a deep breath, dive in, and get on with it. Both systems are so much more pleasant. As I said on IG: NYC – do better.

Eventually, we emerged from the Underground and found our way down tree-lined streets in St. Johns Wood to this:

Don’s idea of heaven on earth. Don had originally wanted to take a day trip to Liverpool, but we soon realized that was only possible if you have more time in England than we did. Secretly, I think this was better.

It’s so popular with tourists that the crosswalk there is constantly full of people taking pictures. One family of four recreated the Beatles’ walk and we cheered them on. It was very convivial, everyone sharing their stories, drivers obligingly pausing so that photos can be taken. It was a lovely sunny day, as well.

Of course, we’re no different, as you can see.

It was so much fun! A taxi driver later told us that there are people here day and night. He’s taken people there at 3 in the morning!

Abbey Road Studios.

There’s much more to the studios than the Beatles. It was founded in 1931 by the great composer Sir Edward Elgar and the London Symphony Orchestra. Prokofiev made his first record there. The “King’s Speech” was recorded there. Glenn Miller’s last recording session was there. Pink Floyd recorded there. The score for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark was recorded there. The score of the movie, The King’s Speech, was recorded there with Colin Firth recording that speech via the original microphone used by King George VI. And on and on.

In front of the studios:

We signed the wall. On the second ‘i’ in Living.

Found on the wall belonging to another property which adjoined the Abbey Road wall:

Do you think my guy was thrilled to be there? Look at that smile!

Of course there is a gift shop, where we went slightly bonkers. T-shirts, buttons, pens, coasters and – you know I had to have them – these:

I might have shouted when I saw them.

I’m so glad we went. I tried to get there the last time I was in London to take pictures for Don, but I didn’t have the time. It was so much better to experience it for the first time with Don. He was beyond happy. So was I.

Afterward, we walked down the street towards the Tube.

Loved this beautiful mosaic street number.

St. Johns Wood is gorgeous and I hope to explore it more someday.

We emerged at Baker Street.

The Royal Academy of Music.

We were heading to the Marylebone High Street, and our first stop was Conran’s. While we were there, this young man who was starting a flower delivery business approached me, most likely hoping to sign me up. I explained that we didn’t live in London, but he handed me a bouquet anyway. Suspicious, I asked, “What’s the catch?” He said there was none, he just wanted to give the flowers to a pretty lady. What a lovely man! I thanked him effusively. I was so touched by his gesture!

Couldn’t stop smiling.

We stopped at Emma Bridgwater Pottery – her only London shop. I stopped here 17 years ago and bought some pieces that I still use every day – part of her Toast and Marmalade series. The shop was very basic then and it’s much more stylish now.

What did I buy?