영국여행 | England (Day 6)

London Bridge, thankfully not falling down.

Next, we headed back to London for Nick's mum's birthday. We had dinner at Bill's (do recommend! Been there a couple of times now and it's always delicious) before heading to the home of another Bill, The Globe Theatre (see what I did there, winkwonk).

Eton Mess, how could I resist?

The walk along the Thames from Bill's to the Globe was great, with the sky being all kinds of colours and full of clouds. So pretty.

We watched As You Like It, which I'd never seen before, and I don't think I'd ever seen any Shakespeare in anything other than modern rewrites so the thought of about 3 hours of Shakespearean English was a bit daunting, but it was surprisingly easy to adjust to.

You're not allowed to take any photos while the show's actually going, but before and after it's all go. We had a box together, which gave us a really nice view of the stage and audience (which worked in our favour when it came to characters randomly appearing in the crowd). I was a little bit confused when some characters referenced or used modern things such as Wayfarer style sunglasses and a bike with a headlamp. It kind of broke the illusion and immersion of it being in another time period in my opinion.

I really loved the story, and was pleased enough that I got most of the jokes. Shakespeare is definitely better watched as a performance. It was really engaging and easier to understand just through context. Not that that should be surprising information. Funny that a play would be more enjoyable and understandable when you watch it as a play rather than read the script in a classroom.

The other thing I'd forgotten is that the Globe doesn't have a roof. So there were a few moments where we were concerned about a spot of rain developing into something heavier, but it never happened, thankfully. Not sure how the people in Shakespeare's time would have coped. Would it have been cancelled midway through? A time-out to wait for the rain to pass? This is England. The saddest thing is that, in these modern times, it's right under a main flight path, which is both distracting and also makes it hard to hear what people are saying. Sigh.

By the time it had finished, it was night time and the city was all lit up. I've never had many chances to see the areas around the river at night, so that was quite exciting for me.

London's actually quite pretty, innit?