The Food Chain

Warning: Animals were harmed in the filming of this video, if you are or ever were a fan of guinea pigs this might be one to skip.

Foggy

Allen Morrison's Eyes on London

A brief before and after thoughts by Allen Morrison on his last London Theatre Tour.

Saturday November 26^th Playboy of the Western World

Guys, we're hitting the ground sprinting.  This is the final, closing night performance of one of the great plays in English theatre history, being performed at the most hallowed theatre in London, the Old Vic. This is like Christmas morning for theatre history lovers.  I can only imagine there'll be some kind of ceremony at the end of it all, flowers, champagne, crying, speeches.  Who knows, we'll just have to see.  At any rate, we'll have to get dressed up for this one.  This show will also help us meet our "Irish accent" quota for the tour.

         

Our first show was at the Old Vic.  We saw Playboy of the Western World and it was great.  A very traditional interpretation of the script and a lovely production. 

Sunday November 27^th Free Day

Monday November 28^th The Comedy of Errors

If you're going to London to watch some theatre, you have to see a Shakespeare show.  This is showing at the National Theatre on the Olivier Stage.  It seems as though they've given a modern setting for this production.  Personally, I love it when Shakespeare is given a contemporary interpretation, it shows its timelessness. My very first professional gig after theatre school was in a touring production of The Comedy of Errors out of Montreal so this play has a bit a of a place in my heart.

On Monday night we saw Comedy of Errors at the National Theater.  This was truly fantastic.  They did a modern interpretation of the script and I think it really helped to bring the story alive.  Shakespeare's texts are timeless and seeing this story set in a contemporary London setting really underlined that. Personally, this has been my favorite so far.

Tuesday November 29^th The Women in Black (matinee)

This is a ghost story.  The website claims it's "The most terrifying live theatre experience in the world".  It's being turned into a movie staring Daniel Radcliffe aka Harry Potter.  It's at the Fortune Theatre.  I think it's going to be bone chillingly fantastic.  I did, however, make sure to schedule it as our matinee so that we won't step out of the theatre into the dark London night.

On Tuesday we saw a matinee performance of the horror ghost story, The Woman in Black another excellent production. Very suspenseful and, at times, terrifying.  What made this really exciting though, for me, was that there was also a field trip of about seventy high school students in the audience who were very vocal about screaming in terror at all the right moments.  We were basically watching a horror

film with a bunch of kids and it made it even better because they were so into it.

Reasons to be Pretty (evening show)

Neil LaBute is a popular American playwright and film director.  This show is the final part of his trilogy on society's obsession with beauty.  It stars some fairly well known British film and TV stars.  It plays at the Almeida Theatre.  

Tuesday evening we saw “Reasons to be Pretty” out at the Almeida. A very gritty and brilliantly acted American play.  This one incited the most lively post-show discussion so far as the play really questions modern relationships and marriage as well as the obsession with beauty.  The tube ride back home was a barrage of differing opinions and points of view on the topics that the play raised.  Theatre is supposed to provoke discussion and this production certainly did just that.

Wednesday November 30^th Improv Night

I'll be performing in an improv comedy show with the London group, Catch 23.  Everyone's invited, though this is not something that's part of our "official" schedule.  Improv is one of my favorite things to do and if you're unfamiliar with what it is, exactly, think of the TV show "Who's Line Is It Anyway".  Scenes made up on the spot before your very eyes based on suggestions from the audience.  It's pretty great. Not sure what the venue is going to be yet.

Improv show on Wednesday night.  I performed with an all-Canadian team against two local London teams.  Needless to say, we won in a landslide.

 Thursday December 1^st Jerusalem 

This is the one.....  This is the one show of all the ones we're going to see that I'm the most excited about.  It is the first show I bought tickets for and I built the entire schedule around it.  It's one of the hottest shows in town and it was very difficult getting tickets for it.  My aunt saw it in New York and says it's amazing.  The lead, Mark Rylance, supposedly delivers a powerhouse performance.  It's won tons of awards.  Click on the title above and scroll down on the show's website and read some of the reviews.  We're going to love this.  It's at the Apollo theatre.

Friday December 2^nd Pippin

This is the musical on our schedule.   It's happening at the Menier Chocolate Factory, which appears to be a pretty intimate space so this should be a nice complement  to our schedule.  You can read up about some of the play's history here.  Apparently there's also a pretty good restaurant at the theatre that might be fun to eat at before the show of Friday.

Saturday December 3^rd 39 Steps 

Based on the John Buchanan novel and the Alfred Hitchcock film, this adaptation by Patrick Barlow is straight up farcical comedy.  It's a stylized whodunit mystery with some fantastic physical comedy and witty wordplay thrown on top.  I think this is going to be hilarious and it felt like the perfect conclusion to our tour.  It's playing at the Criterion Theatre.

Avoid non-essential travel

The Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada has the following to say about Burundi:

 OFFICIAL WARNING: Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against non-essential travel to Burundi. While the general situation in the country has started to stabilize as a result of peace agreements between the National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebel group and the Government of Burundi, sudden outbreaks of violence and civil unrest are still likely to take place throughout Burundi, including around FNL demobilization camps. There are large amounts of small arms and weapons in circulation, easily available to various groups. Violent attacks and ambushes by former soldiers, rebel forces, and youth gangs against humanitarian workers, including foreigners, occur frequently. These incidents include robbery and murder. The presence of refugees returning from Rwanda and Tanzania also continues to exacerbate tensions.

Like the sensible traveler I am, after reading this I decided to go anyways. I am definitely glad I made the decision because Bujumbura was an amazing city. I didn’t feel unsafe once and people were a lot more welcoming then they were in the neighbouring country of Rwanda. The one thing people in Bujumbura know how to do well is party and it doesn’t matter what night of the week it is, naturally I fit in quite well. The local drop was Amstel Bock and you can guess this traveler had his fair share.

Foggy

(Photos to come as internet is ridiculously slow here)

 

 

Avoid non-essential travel

Rwanda Genocide

In 1994 approximately 800 000 people were murdered in Rwanda over 100 days as the international community stood by and watched. The killing was between the Hutu and Tutsi, definitions given out during the colonization period in the 1800’s. Today Rwanda is perfectly safe but the scars of such a recent tragedy are still apparent. A visit to the capital Kigali can not be done without stopping by at the Genocide Memorial. There is a mass grave here on sight as well as a museum. The museum is by donation with an audio tour costing you $13 ($10 if you have a “valid” student ID like me). The museum is in three parts with the first taking you through Rwanda’s history from the beginnings all the way up to today. The second part of the museum compares this genocide to others that have happened over history. The last part of the museum is when things really hit home as it shows you pictures of children killed during the genocide, and tells you tales of what there favourite things were. It then tells you one by one how each were killed or what their last sight was. It is quite a sombre experience but something you must do if in the country. You can also take a 40 minute bus ride from Kigali to Nyamata where there are two churches where mass murders took place.

I was lucky enough to bump into a guy who was my age at the bar, which would have made him seven during the genocide. He was a Tutsi and told me the story of how him and his family hid in a hole in the ground for three weeks. His father was killed just feet from the covered hole when he left to find the family bananas. The rest of them eventually made their way to Uganda where they were safe until things were over. I asked him how the country can get along now knowing what happened. He went on to mention that the only way for their country to move forward is for the one side to forgive and the other side to ask for forgiveness. He said that without this their country would be stuck in a vicious circle and never get anywhere. Very forward thinking as I don’t know if I would have had the same level head if my dad would have been killed. My hat is off to the Rwandan people who are making leaps and bounds in the recovery from such an atrocity not too many years ago.

Foggy

(Pictures to come due to slow internet)

Rwanda Genocide

Rwanda Border

I was told that for Canadians you had to obtain your visa online before you got to the border. The form is very simple to fill out and can be found at the following address https://www.migration.gov.rw/singleform.php. It tells you that it will get back to you within three days with your visa in an attachment you will print out and take to the border. Three turned into five and I still had not received anything, so I said screw it and headed to the border. We got there early in the morning and they certainly were not happy about me not having a visa but American dollars always seem to smooth things over in Africa and I got my stamp and entry into the country. Another thing to remember at the border is that plastic bags are illegal in Rwanda so leave them at home as your bag gets thoroughly searched for the contraband and you can be subsequently fined.

Foggy

Rwanda Border