Day Trip #6…
In the morning we went to Warwick Castle, a medieval castle in Warwickshire. It’s been turned into a major tourist attraction/amusement park. I didn’t really like how touristy it was. They had scheduled shows, people in costumes, and lots of little kids running around. I think it could have been fun if we went during the summer, because then they have jousting tournaments, but otherwise I wasn’t impressed. They did have lovely gardens, but again they would have been prettier in the spring/summer. There was a garden though that had a dozen peacocks roaming around in it. It was cool, because they were right next to you… no cages or anything.
We walked into this big field where this guy was flying birds. He was the resident falconer. He let us put on a leather glove and have a giant owl swoop down and eat a baby chicken out of our hand. As a vegetarian, I probably should have been against holding a dead chick in my hand (which was really gross), but it was really cool to have this huge predator bird swoop down at you. Really cool! Definitely the best part of the castle.
After Warwick we drove to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. We went to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Shakespeare’s wife’s childhood home. Then we went to Shakespeare’s Birthplace and childhood home. I was impressed with how they made up this particular tourist attraction. It was similar to the bread tour at Disneyland, where you watch a video, then move onto another room to continue the movie. It was nicely done. We then went to Nash’s House, the house where Shakespeare retired and lived the rest of his life. After Nash’s House, we were free to roam the city on our own for a couple of hours until we had to meet back up at the RSC Courtyard Theatre to see King Lear. Allyson and I walked all over the city – multiple times in fact because we got kinda lost. 
We were headed in the general direction of the theatre when we found some of our classmates confused as to where to go, so we joined together and made our way to the RSC Theatre. I was very skeptical about this performance. I was not looking forward to it. The theatre was very interesting. I felt like it was an Ikea theatre, because the seats and setup were very modern looking. The seats rose up very high, but were not very deep, so everyone in the theatre had a clear view of the actors/stage down below. The stage was small with two pathways cutting through the audience. The performance was very long, and before it started I was afraid I would fall asleep.
Well, King Lear was fantastic. I loved it! I never really thought I would love a Shakespeare play, but this performance was fantastic. The actors were very good, and their use of stage, props, and overall acting was great. They had very little to work with on the stage, but the way the lighting was done allowed multiple scenes to flow flawlessly, cutting back and forth between different characters.
We were all fairly nervous during the show, because Sister Howe had told us that at one point during the play King Lear would run out on the stage naked. No one wanted to see an old man naked. Fortunately (or unfortunately) she was mistaken, and the scene did not occur. To tell you the truth, it was kind of a let down, because all of the nervous apprehension was all for nothing. Haha. I still loved the performance. It was done very well. I suppose it is hard to explain why; it was just so good! King Lear has become one of my favorite plays here. Never thought I’d see the day when Shakespeare would make my Top 5 list.
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