A Big Splurge Of Random

[sophieisgod]

Lots to say, lots to say...


I'm still feeling sightly giddy after yesterday's picspam, and I have just learned from the wonderful ohcatling that there will be a national tour in October! And it will be in Leeds while I'm in York! So now I have to go! I've been having a rummage on the interweb and I found the castlist and I recognise a few people. Thomas Morrison, aka David Morrissey's son in Blackpool is playing Scripps. He's not a fittie, as such, but he is funny and pretty awesome. And Orlando Wells is playing Irwin! Alex from As If! Anyone else remember that? Sundays, on T4? it's very bizarre. Posner is Steven Webb... from The Magician's House! And Julie's son from Bad Girls! Oh, I am so very excited. And I need a History Boys icon, dammit!



Because I've gotten just a teeny bit obsessed with Gary Oldman recently, I raided my mother's amazon account and got Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. My lord, is it ever awesome. For a start, it's written and directed by Tom Stoppard, who is responsible for Arcadia, one of my favourite ever plays. It's about two supporting characters from Hamlet, which I wrote my A2 English Lit coursework on ("The presentation of Hamlet and his foils"), and is, y'know, SHAKESPEARE! And it stars Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. And is AWESOME.



Anyway, the dialogue is lightning-quick and sharp as anything, and they basically wander around, not entirely sure what they're doing there, and they keep bumping into the action from Hamlet. They can't remember anything that happened before the start of the play, and they're not entirely sure which of them is Rosencrantz and which is Guildenstern. They're quite sweet and innocent, especially Gary Oldman, bless his socks. I just know that every time I see Hamlet for the rest of my life, I'll be picturing them bumbling around behind the scenes. And Questions mught just be my favourite game ever.

Rosencrantz: What's the matter with you today?
Guildenstern: When?
Rosencrantz: What?
Guildenstern: Are you deaf?
Rosencrantz: Am I dead?
Guildenstern: Yes or no?
Rosencrantz: Is there a choice?
Guildenstern: Is there a God?
Rosencrantz: Foul! No non sequiturs! Three... two, one game all.
Guildenstern: What's your name?
Rosencrantz: What's yours?
Guildenstern: You first.
Rosencrantz: Statement! One... love.
Guildenstern: What's your name when you're at home?
Rosencrantz: What's yours?
Guildenstern: When I'm at home?
Rosencrantz: Is it different at home?
Guildenstern: What home?
Rosencrantz: Haven't you got one?
Guildenstern: Why do you ask?
Rosencrantz: What are you driving at?
Guildenstern: What's your name?
Rosencrantz: Repetition! Two... love. Match point.
Guildenstern: Who do you think you are?
Rosencrantz: Rhetoric! Game and match!



I am actually gutted. I only *just* found out that in 2004 the National staged a six-hour production of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, starring Anna Maxwell-Martin and Dominic Cooper as Lyra and Will. True, I was doing my GCSEs at the time, and most likely couldn't have gone anyway, but still! I can't even imagine how incredible it must have been. They did the daemons with these paper puppets with light inside them, and it looks beautiful.The pictures are awesome.

Anyway, my main point is that I miss so much, not living in London, and it drives me up the wall. I know it would be all be hideously expensive, but the sheer amount of cultural stuff I'm missing out on is making me slightly crazy. And it's not like films, where you can catch up whenever you want. It's an actual physical experience that you can't recreate, being in the same space as the actors and feeling all the tension. Sigh. Je suis melancholy



I've been rereading Shoebox, and it's put me in a Yeats-y mood. So, for your reading pleasure:

He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I'm currently deciphering Ulysses for my course, so it's nice to read an Irishman who writes in legible sentences. Makes a nice change. I am really excited for next term though, I can't wait to get stuck in.

Comments

[darkangsty42.livejournal.com]

I personally love the part with the paper airplane sailing past Ophelia's head. Or the water displacement scene in the bathtub.