Birthmonth Day Five: The Globe

DAY FIVE.  AGE FIVE.

The Favourite Literary Character: Jeremy Fisher

Shows I got to see as part of school outings:

• Messing With Medea (Orchard Theatre Company/The Point, Eastleigh/19th October 1999) – two person play based on Greek tragedy that we all misread as ‘Messing With Media’.  It’s the tale of a woman who, to punish her adulterous husband, murders their two children and her husband’s new bride.  It is impossible, impossible, to sympathise with this woman.

• The Taming Of The Shrew (Royal Shakespeare Company/Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth/29th March 2000) – started with a film clip, and then the actors from the film came out of a door in the wall on which it was being projected – ooh, they were messing with media!  Otherwise, an all right production but it’s not an enjoyable play.

• The Tempest (by William Shakespeare/Shakespeare's Globe, London/21st June 2000)– got to go to the Globe, which is cool because it is something I can lord over other people who have not been to the Globe.  I was not particularly excited to be seeing Vanessa Redgrave though which led to this event, mentioned previously:

• GCSE Poetry Live! (Portsmouth/27th September 2000) – attempt to get children interested in poetry by witnessing the actual poets performing.  This is actually a really amazing opportunity.  But it failed to ignite The Interest.  I spent the time shading in The Programme.  I’m still not interested in poetry.  However, Simon Armitage was very good.

• Macbeth (The Long Overdue Theatre Company/The Point, Eastleigh/23rd November 2000) – I remember nothing of this except one bit with sticks.  I think it was a very stylistic ‘tribal’ interpretation (ie, bollocks).

• Black Comedy (Ababcus (sic - is that a typo in the ticket?) Theatre/Ashcroft Arts Centre/5th April 2001) – I think we were performing this play, so we got to watch some professionals doing it better.  Not the most motivational idea.

• King Oedipus (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton/24th October 2001) – again no memory of this show, but I do recall getting annoyed with the guy who did the question and answer session.

I’m sure glad that school took us on outings and tried to introduce us to culture,

but seriously?

Ancient Greek Tragedy and Shakespeare?  Were they trying to kill any interest we could ever possibly have in the stage?

Actually, since I wanted to be an actor, and all I was ever told by any teacher when I told them this was:

I guess they were trying to kill The Interest.

I always thought that the fact that this didn’t put me off meant I really was supposed to be an actor.

I was wrong about a lot of other things too.

What boring stuff did school make you sit through?