London was not a city of good first impressions. Try dragging your luggage with 13 other people onto the tube and you’ll see what I mean. Then, try almost getting hit by a car, twice in the same street. That’ll give you an even better sense of how I was feeling when we first arrived. Having fallen in love with York and Cambridge, I wasn’t sure what to make of London. I wasn’t familiar with large cities, and I certainly wasn’t happy about abandoning the lovely cottagecore vibes of our past excursions to traipse through busy, albeit clean, city streets. London was our final four days in England, however, so I did my best to get on better terms with it.
London had one thing that put us on truly agreeable terms: theater. I had the opportunity to visit three different theaters while I was in London and see some incredible (and incredibly unique) shows. Our first was the 47th, shown at the Old Vic, a dark political comedy about the next American election. The story itself was great; written in iambic pentameter, the writers were witty enough to make fun of our political atrocities without resorting to poking at a certain someone’s intelligence. The politics, however, were mostly a British fantasy and thoroughly British humor, making it a bit too realistic in places as an American in the audience. The best part, however, was at the end when we were walking back to the tube, and I did a complete verbal literary analysis, of which poor Dr. Bender was subjected to listen.
The next play was Much Ado About Nothing, performed at none other than the Gl
obe itself. After a rousing tour of the facilities, in which we were kicked out of the theater and politely informed that Shakespeare was written in Old English, we were set free for a solid half hour before the show. I discovered the cousin to grilled cheese, the cheese pocket pie, and ate a decadent cookie before returning to the theater, this time with a warm welcome, for the show to begin. As all good Shakespeare companies do, they’d updated the historical setting a bit. The soldiers were now WWII era (I think? Apologies to Dr. Gathagan if I am mistaken), and Leanato was now Leanata. Which, frankly, I think was much better, and really complicated the scene were everyone paints Hero with a scarlet letter. It’s one thing for your father to be upset with you for supposedly cheating, but it’s another thing for your mother to throw you under the bus. Of course, all’s well that ends well, and they all lived happily ever after.
Just after seeing Much Ado, Dr. Bender and I quickly went off like the cool kids we are to a much smaller blackbox theater, The Southwark Playhouse, to see an indie musical, LIFT. Running at just 90 minutes, this play was the
shortest but also my favorite, and a perfect introduction to Pride Month. With music vibes similar to Jonathan Larson’s Tick Tick… Boom! and Superbia, and a story reminiscent of Rent (also by Larson), the show takes place over 54 seconds in one man’s imagination as he works through the breakup of a lifetime. He uses these other people around him to imagine different lives, different paths, and different ways of life, ultimately coming to better understand his own. Many of the characters he imagines are queer, explicitly so sexuality-wise and implicitly in the ways of gender, but with such nuance and tenderness that it feels like he knows them personally. Every story is unique and realistic, and there could easily be a play about each and every character. At the end of 54 seconds, it seemed our man had really found his way. I think this show is my favorite, not only because I love musicals and all things gay, but also because it felt the most down to Earth. It felt real.
While I can’t say London has completely stolen my heart, I found little pockets of joy and amusement throughout the city’s theaters. I discovered the beauties of modern London while on a trip to learn about the medieval. Really, I got the best of both worlds.
~Andi Bruce