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Storms and volcanoes
Jun. 11th, 2013 09:40 amWe've just had a couple of days in London. Sunday afternoon didn't go quite as planned, since the Golden Hinde was closed for a private function (grr!), Southwark Cathedral was busy holding a service, and London itself was very cold - far colder than we'd envisaged when packing clothes back in the balmy summer sunshine of Friday evening on the island.
On Sunday evening, we went to the Globe to watch The Tempest as groundlings. I've never been to the Globe before, and The Tempest isn't a play I know. (I did Macbeth for 4 years running at school, interpersed with occasional other tragedies.) It was interesting to see how the play used the space and the close proximity of the audience - sometimes in a way that made me glad that I wasn't on the front row! It was all very funny, not just the scenes that were obviously there for comic relief, but also in some scenes that looked to me as if they could easily have been played quite seriously. I feel the need to seek out a DVD of a different production, for comparison.
Yesterday we went to the British Museum to see their Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition. Despite the timed, limited entry, it was very crowded, but very interesting. The exhibition space was arranged like a typical Pompeiian house, with exhibits that matched the purpose of each room.
After we'd finished it, we stayed in a broadly Roman idiom, and went to the various Roman sections of the main museum, then added in some Bronze Age and Iron Age for luck. (Annoyingly, the Anglo-Saxons were being redeveloped.) I was surprised by how many exhibits came from hoards found in the last 20 years; I tend to think of Stuff In Museums as being stuff that was found over a hundred years ago. There were so many hoards that I now have a vision of an ancient Britain absolutely littered by bemused people wandering around with maps, saying, "Now, where did I put it?" I was also surprised to see that a mere two things was enough for something to be called a "hoard." I wonder if the same is true of hordes.
On Sunday evening, we went to the Globe to watch The Tempest as groundlings. I've never been to the Globe before, and The Tempest isn't a play I know. (I did Macbeth for 4 years running at school, interpersed with occasional other tragedies.) It was interesting to see how the play used the space and the close proximity of the audience - sometimes in a way that made me glad that I wasn't on the front row! It was all very funny, not just the scenes that were obviously there for comic relief, but also in some scenes that looked to me as if they could easily have been played quite seriously. I feel the need to seek out a DVD of a different production, for comparison.
Yesterday we went to the British Museum to see their Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition. Despite the timed, limited entry, it was very crowded, but very interesting. The exhibition space was arranged like a typical Pompeiian house, with exhibits that matched the purpose of each room.
After we'd finished it, we stayed in a broadly Roman idiom, and went to the various Roman sections of the main museum, then added in some Bronze Age and Iron Age for luck. (Annoyingly, the Anglo-Saxons were being redeveloped.) I was surprised by how many exhibits came from hoards found in the last 20 years; I tend to think of Stuff In Museums as being stuff that was found over a hundred years ago. There were so many hoards that I now have a vision of an ancient Britain absolutely littered by bemused people wandering around with maps, saying, "Now, where did I put it?" I was also surprised to see that a mere two things was enough for something to be called a "hoard." I wonder if the same is true of hordes.
