Day Trips from London: London to Stratford-upon-Avon

Day Trip: London to Stratford-upon-Avon

A pilgrimage to Stratford-upon-Avon is a must for any lover of Shakespeare. This was his childhood home and birthplace. The cottage of his beloved Anne Hathaway is here along with the Holy Trinity Church where he was baptised, married and buried.

Ive been to Stratford-upon-Avon twice and enjoyed it both times. Once as part of a whirlwind day tour where I was trying to fit as much into my holiday as possible and once as a weekend away. Its a lovely, chilled escape from London and easily done as a day trip.

In less than 10 minutes from the station you will find yourself on Henley street and in front of Shakespeare's Birthplace. His home has been kept as it would have been when he was a child there (it was here i learnt where the expression "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" came from). In his fathers shop you can find out how they made gloves including some facts that might make you go "ew" if you happen to be the kind of person that says such things. Anyway, the thing that just adore is the actors, they do regular performances of snippets from Shakespeare's plays within the grounds. I just love that.

Not far from Henley street is the river Avon. Its beautiful when the sun is out and on Sundays there is a food and crafts market that runs along Waterside. Overlooking the river is the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre. I do think there is something to seeing a Shakespearean play in the place Shakespeare was born. The RSC does brilliant productions and interpretations and its worth seeing a play if you have time.

Further down past the RSC, if you take a bit of a stroll along Waterside/Southern lane, you'll find yourself near the Holy Trinity Church - Shakespeare's final resting place.

Also in that direction (just past the RSC on Waterside) is an odd lamppost donated by Israel. Some other lampposts along this street have been donated too but this one is the most striking.

 
If you are looking for the quintessential chocolate-box cottage with pretty gardens and a thatched roof, then you should visit Anne Hathaway's cottage which is also kept in the style of Shakespeare's period. Anne's family was more well off, and their house is more "grand" so it is a different experience.

Still, the best part is the beautiful grounds. Be warned, it is a good 20 minutes walk or more from the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon but it is a nice walk. Also, just across the road is a nice place to indulge in tea and scones or cake alongside a bubbling brook.

If you don't want to do all that, walking around the main streets in town will show off a large array of historic houses, each charming, well preserved and interesting in its own way - just be sure to look past the high street shop fronts. You never know what you'll find.

Another option is to explore some of the other homes managed by the Shakespeare Trust, such as Halls Croft (home of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna and her husband), the home of John Nash (husband of Shakespeare's granddaughter Elizabeth) and New Place (foundations of the home Shakespeare bought when he became a wealthy playwright). You'll be able to enter for free if you have bought a combined ticket.

Hot Tip: When you arrive at the train station check the brochures in the ticket office, i found one that gave me a 2 for 1 discount which was brilliant. My friend and I bought a combined ticket each (they are valid for a year for free repeat visits) at a bargain price!

Highlights

• Shakespeare's Birthplace
• Anne Hathaway's Cottage
• RSC
• Holy Trinity Church
• River Avon
• Markets

Travel Tips for London to Stratford-upon-Avon

• Trip duration by train is approximately 2 hours (quickest) to 2 and a half hours (longest)
• Make sure you choose Stratford-upon-Avon (SAV) not Stratford-upon-Avon Parkway (STY)
• Trains depart from London Marylebone, Euston and Paddington rail stations - it is best to try to depart from Marylebone as trains departing from there are less likely to require you to change at another station to get to Stratford-upon-Avon
• If you book early (eg a month in advance) you can get tickets for as low as £6
• You can drive to Stratford-upon-Avon - it takes approximately 2 hours (give or take, subject to traffic conditions)

All tips for visiting Stratford-upon-Avon, questions and comments are welcome! Hope you enjoyed this weeks issue!

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Much Ado About Nothing - Royal Shakespeare Company 26th September 2012 Social Media Call

Much ado has been made about the new adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Mainly talk has been about the fact that it is sent in modern day Delhi and it is the first all-Asian cast do perform such a play at the RSC. And while all that is true, the fact is Shakespeare originally set the play in Sicily and this adaptation isn't that far removed from how Shakespeare probably originally intended it; its a story that you can very much see play out in modern day India without suspending your disbelief.


Benedick after "overhearing" that Beatrice has feelings for him

Wednesday afternoon (26th Sept 2012) found me at the Noel Coward theatre in London for the RSCs social media call for their production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing as part of the World Shakespeare Festival. A bunch of theatre reviewers, bloggers, twitter-ers and other social media folk were shown a scene from the play followed by a Q&A with those members of the cast.


Members of the cast and the Director Iqbal Khan during the social media call Q&A


After watching a scene from the play (Act 2 scene 3) i asked the cast "If there is one thing you would like the audience to take away from this production, what would it be?". I received mixed answers.

Madhav Sharma (Leonato) said "Happiness and joy, that there is love in this world" and Shiv Grewal (Don Pedro) said "family is important". My favourite response however was from the Director Iqbal Khan
who candidly said "Its a fucking good play...and its a much better play than people give it credit for, it think it might be his [Shakespeare's] best comedy..."




And for whatever my 2 cents are worth, I'm going to reiterate what Iqbal Khan said...it is a fucking good play...seeing it that Wednesday night (thanks to the RSCs complimentary ticket) only served to prove that. Walking in to the auditorium that evening....i was met with a raised curtain and a recreated scene of daily life in in a bustling Delhi neighbourhood, the set was designed around a courtyard space, with curved doorways, balconies, an old tree wrapped with wires and a light streetlight protruding from the center as though it had grown there complete with a simple rope swing that had a wood seat. People were milling around on stage as though this was their daily life, a maid plaited the hair of a younger maid, a young man was fixing an upright fan, young girls returned home from a shopping trip and stopped for a chat. And that was all before the play even began.

Benedick eavesdropping on Leonato and Don Pedro

During the play itself, Paul Bhattacharjee who plays Benedick and Meera Syal who plays Beatrice were simply fantastical in their witty repartee and awkward affection. The entire cast did a fantastic job in transporting me to modern day Delhi and telling a great story. There were even a few scenes that were quite moving, one in particular gave me chills.

Don Pedro takes advantage of Benedick disguised as a servant

I've already recommended this play to my flatmates and my friend at work is already booking her tickets. Give it a go, its one of the few RSC plays for which you don't have to travel to Stratford-upon-Avon to see and will be gracing the Noel Coward Theatre stage till 27th October 2012.

Leonato and the maid

Benedick and the set for Much Ado About Nothing

If you do go see it or have seen it already, let me know what you think.

Links
Play Synopsys
Cast and Crew
Production Photos
Audience feedback
Director Q&A

VP

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A Soldier in Every Son and the Royal Shakespeare Company

I show my ticket to the lady at the door and she points to the fourth row just in front of the stage. Premium seats! I grin, step down and find my seat. I sit and wait; i have no idea what to expect. Admittedly, from the title and promotional poster it is not something i would have gone to see but this was a free ticket and a new experience so why not?

The lights dim, the doors close and the music starts. The first thing that hits me is the colour and detail of the costumes. The next thing that hits me is the language. Aside from names that i couldn't pronounce, spell or remember if i tried, its normal everyday English. Its very easy to understand, not elaborate and even has a few swear words thrown in. And its funny! It is not a comedy but the writing and execution is clever and provides some genuine laugh out loud moments and cheeky chuckles. I relax and the next few hours fly by as the play unfolds. Sure, I'm not always able to follow who's who due to the names and some actors playing dual roles but when i walk out at the end i feel two things: One, I'm disappointed that not all the seats were filled for such a play, on a Saturday night too. And two, I'm glad that not all the seats were filled because when i go back to see it again, i know I'll get a good seat ;)

The new Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) production has murder, warring houses, betrayal, poison, revenge, people going crazy, ghosts, sacrifice, deception and humor. But. It is not written by Shakespeare.

When i first stumbled across the social media call on the RSC's website, the play they were promoting was not something i was really interested in. In fact, why was the RSC showing something that wasn't Shakespeare? It just looked like it was a boring war story with weird tattoos. But i had never done a social media call before so i thought why not? I tossed my name into the RSC's proverbial hat and was lucky enough to be selected by the organisers. So allow me now a moment to take my foot out of my mouth and say I'm glad i was selected otherwise i would have missed out on a great play.

A Soldier in Every Son - The Rise of the Aztecs is part of the RSC's Nations at War trilogy commissioned for the World Shakespeare Festival. The play is a co-production with the National Theatre of Mexico (Compagna Nacional de Teatro de Mexico) from which 6 actors the set designer, costume designer and composer are working with the RSC on this production. Originally written by Luis Mario Moncada in Spanish as a 3 part play, it has been condensed into one play and translated into English. Put simply, it is about warring tribes during the 15th century before the Aztecs came to power.

The play starts with 2 main tribes - Acolhuas (Blue costumes) and Tepanecas (Gold/Brown costumes) - setting up a marriage to unite them. The Tepaneca princess Tepca (Susie Trayling) and the Acolhuas prince Ixtlixochitl (Alex Waldmann) however cant play nice and the arrangement is broken. Ixtlixochitl then ends up marrying into the Aztec tribe (Red/Black costumes) who at that point are mercenaries for the Tepanecas. After poison, madness, a brother killing a brother and war and you find the puppet master Itzcoatl (Brian Ferguson) manipulating his way to the top of the Aztec clan killing Maxtla (Mark Holgate) who is now head of the Tepanecas and setting up an alliance with with Ixtlixochitl's son who was thought dead thereby beginning the 100 year reign of the Aztecs.

Yesterday was the actual social media call. I joined the 10 or 12 bloggers/facebookers/twitter-ers who showed up to watch a scene from the play followed by a Q&A session with 3 actors (Susie Trayling, Alex Waldmann and Diego Jáuregui) and the Assistant Director (Luke Kernaghan).

I wont repeat each question and its answer because this would turn into a very long post (although if you are interested, email me). But i will say a few things that i found interesting especially after coming home and reading some reviews written by mainstream media, most of which have a gripe with the names of people/places/relationships or the depth of the play. Regarding the names, Alex Waldmann put it best when he said (and I'm paraphrasing here) that Shakespeare is as complicated as a Soldier in Every Son but people already know or are familiar with the names in Shakespeare's plays whereas most people come to this play cold.

As for the depth, the thing you need to understand about this play is that it is new and based on a history of which a lot is unknown. Luke Kernaghan said that it was hard to research a period for which no history exists. That period is about survival. Daily life is a risk, you cant relax. Its not very British and its one of those things the company  had to come to terms with. The actors also have had a challenge in finding a voice for these characters as well as creating a world that is different from the contemporary world. They created movements, stances and used the costumes to help generate an "other-worldly" feel.

This play is new but it definitely has parallels and shadows of Shakespeare. It is entertaining, absorbing and fresh. Make up your own mind, go see it and let me know what you think - but better be quick, once the play wraps up here, it moves to Mexico along with with whole cast, costumes and set.

By the way, ignore the "trailer" on the RSC website (sorry RSC!), it doesn't tell you anything. Have a look at this clip though. Its the scene where Ixtlixochitl (Alex Waldmann) and Tecpa (Susie Trayling) spend some time together...arguing. Background information for this scene is that Zilamiauh (sounds like Zila-Miow) is Ixtlixochitl's slave who he has just spent time rolling around with in a previous scene causing him to be delayed from courting Tecpa.

I do hope you get the chance to see this wonderful new play.

Vanishing Point 

Note: I was not paid to write this post. The RSC only provided me with the opportunity to see the full play (free of charge) and attend the social media call. My opinions as expressed in this post are entirely my own.

Additional information

A Soldier in Every Son - The Rise of the Aztecs

Tickets

Production photos

Costume designs

Director Q&A

Links to others who attended the social media call:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlesbudd/7546048388/in/photostream/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHX9r83lS0k

http://idealword.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/sustainability-of-shakespeare.html

http://www.lynderslove.blogspot.co.uk/

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A weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon (including photo tour!)

I thought I would take a bit of a break from my Japan posts and write about a recent trip I did to Stratford-upon-Avon – also known as Shakespeare country. If you have been following my blog you’ll know that the last time I was here was via a very packed full day tour that didn’t leave much room to explore this lovely town. But I certainly had the opportunity to explore this time round!

I love Shakespeare. My favorite play is Twelfth Night and top of my wishlist was seeing it at the Globe Theatre in London. Sadly, it has been totally booked out – yard tickets (standing room only) are now being resold for 4 times their original listing price, that's crazy! So I thought, why not try and see it in Stratford-upon-Avon? The Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) theatre isn’t the Globe Theatre but I like the connection of seeing Twelfth Night in Shakespeare’s home town. While I was on the RSC’s website I stumbled across a Social Media Call. Basically it was an open invite for anyone who has a blog, facebook, twitter, tumbler,  instagram etc account to submit their details to be considered to attend an event run by the RSC focusing on their new play. I’d only seen the posters of the play and it honestly didn’t appeal to me but I thought why not? To my surprise I was selected and was offered a free ticket to see the play before the social media call – read more about that in my next post here.

I guess being selected was a catalyst for my trip to Stratford-upon-Avon (Stratford-upon-Avon). I booked my train tickets and accommodation for the weekend and was off! The journey from London to Stratford-upon-Avon took just over two hours and went through rolling green countryside. Both Marylebone and Stratford-upon-Avon train stations are cute and have old world charm – I really must do a post on London Railways at some point, most visitors don’t give them a second glance but the architecture can be very charming. Anyway Stratford-upon-Avon!  The river Avon, its parks, swans, ducks and beauty. The weekend markets in the old square or by the river selling fudge, crafts, antiques and miscellany. The architecture and Tudor houses. Shakespeare's Birthplace and resting place and its curse in the Church. Anne Hathaway's cottage and Gardens’, Halls Croft and much more. Finally I was doing something touristy outside London

OK here is a tip that will save you a bit if you are planning to see all the Shakespeare trust houses. Pick up a leaflet at the train station that gives you 50% off the 5 house ticket. It’s good for one year and you can go back as many times as you like on that one ticket! Bargain! Using that ticket I went to see Shakespeare's Birthplace again, Anne Hatahway’s Cottage (the gardens are well worth a look) and Halls Croft. I still have Nash’s house and Mary Arden's farm to see next time I'm in Stratford-upon-Avon – maybe when the weathers a bit better!

I took a lot of photos while I was in Stratford-upon-Avon, mostly of the different buildings – some of which were visibly leaning where they shouldn’t. I also spent a lot of time just walking around and just taking in the bits and pieces that you will only notice if you have time to look. So, rather than me typing anymore I’ve put together a photo tour of Stratford-upon-Avon. Enjoy!

Photo tour time...

By the river Avon

   

  

The houses and architecture of Stratford-upon-Avon

Halls Croft - Road view

Halls Croft - Garden view

Shakespeare's Birthplace - front

Shakespeare's Birthplace - Garden view

           

    

Guild Chapel

Harvard House

Row of cottages on the way to Anne Hathaways Cottage

Shakespeare's grave (Holy Trinity Church and grounds)

Shakespeare's grave and "curse"

Where Shakespeare was baptised

Anne Hathaways cottage and grounds

Lavender maze

Stratford-upon-Avon around town

A quaint little town station

Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre

Gower Memorial - Shakespeare seated and surrounded by four characters from his play. It original location was near the Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre before it was burnt and rebuilt

American Fountain (monument/clock tower in the town square)

Once the home of Shakespeares daughter...now a Crabtree and Evelyn

Shakespeare themed narrow-boat selling ice-cream

I love the quote!

Lampost near the Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre

The Falcon pub appears to be a bit confused

The paper says "much ado about ice-cream"

Oh and one last thing, I have to say a big THANKYOU! to Claire and Rob who are the owners and hosts of the B&B I stayed in while I was in Stratford-upon-Avon. I’d never stayed before and i have to say, I really enjoyed it. It was a cute little place called Avonlea Guesthouse and Claire and Rob were just lovely. Claire is a such a warm and friendly person; my last morning there I had a few questions about the B&B and she sat with me over breakfast, answered them and even told me some stories about some colourful characters that had come to stay. Also, she didn’t bat an eyelid when I (completely mortified and going very red) had to tell her I’d accidentally spilled olive oil on the bedspread the night before (dinner was antipasto from the local Sainsbury) – bad VP! I did offer to pay extra for dry cleaning but she just waved away the idea with a laugh and said they had a company that did the laundry and not to worry. The previous day at breakfast I was being naughty and eavesdropping on a family who were trying to organise accommodation in Oxford. Claire was really helpful; she let them use the B&B laptop (even sat with them to look at some places) loaned them the B&B phone, gave them advice as best she could and was really friendly and nice about the whole thing. So rare these days! It really was such a nice place and I will definitely be staying there on my next visit (no antipasto dinners this time) and should you happen to find yourself in Stratford-upon-Avon, i totally recommend staying there. Thanks Claire and Rob!

VP

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