My Shakespearean Debut> Travels

I am in London now and will be here until Tuesday when I fly back to the states. Yesterday I went into the Tate Modern (Modern Art Museum) for a few hours and then walked over to the nearby Globe theatre. This is a reconstruction of the original one that Shakespeare co-financed and where he performed most of his work. I got tickets to a performance of Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare's best political tragedies. It's about a Roman military leader who is valiant in combat, but so openly disdains the plebes that he ends up being player hated. I actually only saw the first half so I am guessing he eventually dies, but where I left off he had been chased out of Rome. The performance was a bit touristy as it is Shakespeare in the round. I bought standing tickets which are both good and bad. The bad is you are exposed to the elements, and it was raining throughout the performance which didn't help my cold. You also have to stand.

The good thing is the actors actually come into the standing area and performed scenes inches away from me. I was also able to participate in one of the battle scenes, which was a lot of fun. I punched some Japanese guy and held one of the peasant's in a head lock until Coriolanus could stab him with a trident. Needless to say, me and Coriolanus were on the losing end of this battle and I too was tossed out of Rome. So I missed the second half, but all the rain and cold was making my head feel stuffy and frankly those peasants (and the Japanese guy's family) looked pissed.

Today I spent 7 hours in the British museum, the largest museum in the world. The British Empire did a great job of "collecting" the world treasures when the sun was setting on them and this is certainly the best collection I have ever seen. I think I got to see everything currently on display. I am all museumed out for a few weeks.