Proper theatre.

I had an epiphany when I saw Shakespeare's Twelfth Night back in February. I discovered that Shakespeare is not necessarily overrated, that I am not as dense as I thought (at least when it comes to Shakespeare), that I actually retained some of what I learned in high school.

Twelfth Night was so good. I saw it at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End. The production was awesome. The stage set was pretty spare and the costumes were rather Victorian instead of Elizabethan, but everything worked really well for the performance. The actors were so good. Duke Orsino, Lady Olivia, Viola, Malvolio, Sebastian, Mariah, Feste - they all were captivating.

Furthermore, not only were the themes involving love and identity relevant for today's world, but the language and plays on words were just as understandable. Throughout the performance, I couldn't believe that it was a 400-year-old script.

As soon as Duke Orsino opened the play with the line "If music be the food of love, play on," the story came flooding back to me. I read the play during freshman year of high school with an awesome English teacher. I wrote my first critical analysis paper on the play (I think I wrote about the "masks" each character wears). Watching the play for the first time after 7 years was like eating a favorite food I hadn't eaten in a very long time.

I remember really liking the play in high school. I thought it was because we did a close reading of the book, but now that I think about it, I also read Hamlet and Macbeth closely in high school and I still don't particularly care for either.

Twelfth Night definitely has become my favorite play by Shakespeare. Though I suppose my mind can change if I ever see Hamlet or Macbeth or any other of his plays on stage. Because after all, they are meant to be seen, not read.

Once the Globe theatre opens in April, I will hopefully be seeing Romeo and Juliet, which should be fun!

As for other theatre outings here in London, so far I've seen We Will Rock You a musical featuring music from Queen (my grade: B, though I can't complain too much about this one because my study abroad program paid for it), Twelfth Night of course (my grade: A++), and Les Miserables (my grade: A, I loved Jean Valjean, Javert, and Eponine). Before I leave London, I would like to see The Phantom of the Opera, a play called Three Days of Rain starring James McAvoy, and Madame de Sade starring Dame Judi Dench. It's great here in London because if tickets are available, it's pretty easy to see plays for 10 pounds, even with big names attached to the production. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!