I am all cultured out.
London: Hamlet, Monkey: Journey to the West, and Babylon exhibition.
In order of preference.
Hamlet was awesome. The lad who took over from Tennant was amazing. A very different Hamlet from Tennant I imagine - definately went for the depression angle, not as manic as he can be played, and by the time I saw it he'd had time to bed in an' that. Patrick Stewart was amazing too, as was the guy playing Petronius who was very sweet and funny so it was a real shame when he... well, I won't spoil it for you.
Monkey was also awesome! It had acrobats and people spinning five plates in each hand while DOING ACROBATICS! Spectacular, I think is the word. Most of the sets were actually quite minimalist but there was so much colour and so much going on that it seemed very full.
Babylon is where I can get my geek on. Really intereting as a subject, and in terms of aesthetic design very good. The layout however led to a lot of bottlenecks, and in some places it was impossible to have more than two people reading the text at a time. Also, it's grouped in sections, each in their own area (interlocked areas, linear flow system) but the main introductory peice in each was in the middle rather than at the entrance. So unless you double back a lot, it's not a very logical order. I estimate I read about 1/3 of what I would normally have read had I been in there on my own. British Museum! You know how busy these things get! Maybe plan for it a little bit? If I'd done it I'd either have gone for a big room so that people could see where everything was and move easily between areas to avoid bottlenecks and mean visitors can cover all the areas by using them when they're less busy, or a far looser linear design. I mean, every time, British Museum! All the tickets are always sold out!
Comments (2)
i want to see monkey! and maybe hamlet, but mostly monkey!
more culture at the end of the month! forrin' culture!