MIA (Missing In Auckland)

It was a beautiful night for an open-air show.  We arrived early and sat in the sunshine with a glass of wine and a platter of finger food.  And then into the theatre.  This took me back to a visit to The Globe in London several years ago.  It felt just the same. Where we were seated was covered but those standing in the area immediately in front of the stage in the pit, (The Groundlings) were not.

This was the first night of the Pop Up Globe Season 2016 and the first performance was Romeo and Juliet as we have never seen it performed before.  Such enthusiasm that I am sure even William S himself would have been impressed. Each of the actors was well cast.  Of course, in true tradition, there were no microphones but we had no trouble hearing the well-enunciated words from the cast.

It was a truly magical pairing of actors as young lovers.  Juliet was played by Christel Chapman and Jonathan Tynan-Moss was Romeo. Each was so well suited to their role and they really had us believing that what we were seeing and hearing on that fantastic stage, was happening in real life.  And the magic wasn’t restricted to them.

We are told the play is “Performed by a cast of professional actors brought together into a new, specially-formed ensemble repertory company and working with world experts to bring you the authentic shock of the old: the effect of Shakespeare’s plays performed in the space for which they were written.” and

“Pop-up Globe Auckland is a full-scale working temporary replica of the second Globe Theatre originally built by Shakespeare and his company in 1614, the result of groundbreaking international academic research. With a steel frame ‘skinned’ in plywood, the Pop-up Globe fuses cutting-edge scaffold technology with 400-year-old designs and superb contemporary performances to create an immersive 360-degree experience unlike any other.”

At the end of the performance, the actors all sang and danced around the stage, obviously enjoying themselves as much as the audience.

In all, a great experience and I thank my very generous friend for the gift of a night of Shakespeare.

The next day I returned to Wellington and my friend and our hostess, enjoyed Twelfth Night that evening.  Another great performance from all accounts.

Then on Sunday, I went to the airport to meet the friend in whose house I lived after leaving the house I shared with The Architect and while I was having this small apartment spruced up.  He is the brother in law of The Architect and has been a true friend to me.

From the airport, I took him to his father’s house.  Father is 100 years old and always greets me as if I were one of his family.  He is an amazing old man who still lives alone in his own house.  He has a series of carers who come in to make food, clean the house etc but he is absolutely capable of looking after his personal needs himself. He is an avid gardener and takes every opportunity to go out and pull weeds or whatever small job needs attention.

And wonder of wonders, on Monday morning the furniture arrived.

So yesterday was spent moving furniture around in this small living room.  And now that I have the furniture, I am pleased with it. Just have to decide where to place it and what else will have to go.

And my generous friend who took me to Auckland for the show, and whom I help on occasions with her Real Estate business, has taken a quick trip “across the ditch” to Sydney for a couple of days.  So today I acted as her gopher, delivering contracts and brochures for her.

So apologies to my Daily Blogging Buddies.  I have been missing for the past few days.

And for no reason other than it is one of my favourite quotes, I give you

“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine,
freedom, and a little flower.”
Hans Christian Andersen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

Pop Up Globe

Today a friend a I are going to Auckland to see Shakespeare.  A replica of the second Globe Theatre, which was built on the ruins of the first Globe in 1614. Pop-Up Globe replicates exactly the dimensions of Shakespeare’s second Globe Theatre.

“This round three-storey building is designed to create a remarkable theatre experience. Wherever in the theatre you sit or stand, you’ll be within 15m of the action on stage and surrounded on all sides by people sharing the same space and experience.

An audience of up to 900 will completely surround the stage. In fact, some of the best seats in the house are located in the Lords’ and Gentlemen’s rooms on the two levels directly behind the stage.

The stage is very large – over 100sqm – and takes up almost half the base of the yard. This expansive space allows the Pop-up Globe Theatre Company an unusually large performance area on which to bring Shakespeare’s work to life, just as Shakespeare’s own cast enjoyed 400 years ago.

Pop-Up Globe is capped with an onion dome, a unique signature design element which will be a remarkable feature of the Auckland cityscape, just as it would have been for the Globe on its site by the Thames.

With a steel frame ‘skinned’ in plywood, Pop-Up Globe fuses cutting-edge scaffold technology with 400-year-old design.” So says Auckland Mayor, Len Brown.

We are going to see Romeo and Juliet tomorrow night (Friday) and though I have to return to Wellington on Saturday, my friend will see Twelfth Night on Saturday.

This is a once in a lifetime experience.  Pop-Up Globe artistic director Dr Miles Gregory says Shakespeare’s Globe is one of the most important theatres in history.

“The experience was so remarkable that ever since the late 19th century, actors and academics – and sometimes a mixture of the two – have sought to recreate as much as is possible the ‘original’ staging conditions of Shakespeare’s own theatres,” says Dr Gregory, formerly a Regional Producer for Shakespeare’s Globe London

“Yet Shakespeare’s second Globe Theatre, the theatre he built and in which his work was being performed at the time he died, has never been accurately reconstructed.

“Our aim is to recreate as faithfully as possible this original performance space so Pop-up Globe’s audience can enjoy the remarkable experience of Shakespeare’s own audience 400 years ago.”

After tomorrow night I’ll be able to confirm that they have succeeded in their aim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Well, How About That?

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Lewis Carroll – “Through the looking glass”.

While sitting looking at this blank screen today, without any idea on what to write I suddenly remembered a file on my computer which houses all sorts of interesting and daft things.  So I turned to it today..

• Do you know where the title of GOLF came from?   Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented.  It was ruled ‘Gentlemen Only… Ladies Forbidden’… and thus, the word GOLF entered into the English language.
• Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from
  history:
  Spades – King David; Hearts – Charlemagne; Diamonds – Julius
  Caesar and Clubs -Alexander, the Great.
• In the 1400’s a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb.  Hence the Rule of Thumb.
• Do you know that if you were to spell out the numbers, you would have to go to One Thousand before you found the letter “A”.
• In English pubs, beer is still ordered by pints and quarts..In England in olden times when customers got unruly, the bartender would
  yell at them :Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.” It’s where the expression Mind your Ps and Qs comes from.
•  Did you know that the first novel ever wrtten on a typewriter was
  Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Do you want more useless facts and information?

• In Babylon 4,000 years ago it was the accepted practice that for a
  month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead (a honey beer) he could drink.  This period was called the honey month, which we know today as The Honeymoon.
• In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames
  by ropes.  When one pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on.  Hence the phrase – ‘Goodnight, sleep tight’.
• Every day more money is printed for the game of Monopoly than for the U.S. Treasury.

And of course I love this next one:

• Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and
  laser printers have in common?
  A. All were invented by women.

“So be sure when you step,
Step with care and great tact.
And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act.
And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) “

Dr Seuss from “Oh the places you’ll go”.

Related articles

• Mind your Ps, Qs and Gaps. (30 photos) (thechive.com)
• I Know My ABCs, but I’m Not So Clear on My Ps & Qs (kiwsparks.wordpress.com)
• Things I Have Wondered About – Now I Know (jlue.wordpress.com)