Living so close to
Stratford upon Avon we see a lot of the Royal Shakespeare Company productions. I think I have seen almost the entire Shakespeare repertoire in the year’s I’ve lived here. And my absolute favourite play is, without any doubt, Richard ll. The first time I took much notice of it was when I was studying with the Open University a course called Culture and Belief in 16th century Europe. It was the set book for the Shakespeare section. By sheer good luck that was the year the RSC produced the play at The Other Place, with Sam West in the title role.
So when the programme came out for the winter 2013 season, Greg Doran’s first as Director, I was thrilled to see the play amongst the delights in store. The problems I could see, however, rather tempered my delight. The lead role was to be taken by David Tennant, and the play was only in the repertoire for a month. Now I am an Associate Member of the RSC, which gives me, for a moderate fee, a few weeks advance booking. Not as much as a full member, but usually enough. However, knowing from bitter experience the popularity of the aforesaid Mr Tennant, I was not sure if this was going to be enough this time, even though performances don’t start until next October. So I decided to check. I rang the Membership Hotline, only to be told that they were unable to answer because of ‘unprecedented’ demand! So I left a message, and, joy of joys, a delightful person rang me back within the next couple of hours. I was right, memberships were being taken out in vast numbers! Now Full Members can book on-line from 11th February, and Associate Members from 4th March. With a very limited number of performances the chances of any decent seats being left are remote. What might be left are the ‘limited view’ ones, or the Superseats at vast cost. The price of these is considerably more than the difference in the types of membership. So I bit the bullet and upgraded. David, your performance had better be worth it! In the meantime note to self. Reminder on Calendar to remember to go in and book at 9 o’clock on the morning of 11th February, otherwise it will have all been in vain. The Christmas production this year is to be Wendy and Peter Pan. Must check if grandchildren would like to see it. You can’t go to it without a child in tow!
At least the weather is trying to look up. We had quite a lot of snow, though not as much as other areas of the country. And so far we seem to have managed to avoid flooding with the thaw. This is a decided improvement on other years when the High Street was a river! There has been a huge amount of work put in over the last couple of years, and all credit goes to the people who got it right!
Not sure what the bunting was for, but Alcester seems to erect it for any possible occasion!
But the snow did have it’s effect. Last week I was unable to get into Stratford for my Latin class! This week was fine, but it is amazing how much difference missing a week can have. Good news though, the proposed group trip to Rome in October seems to be a runner! The idea is to stay in either a monastery or a convent because they do inexpensive, 3 star equivalent, B & B. Not sure how I will fit in there,but we shall see! Now to persuade Paul to come as well!
