My Journal from the Stratford Shakespeare Trip

by Melanie Martin, graduate student in English Literature

I had a really great time on this trip–wonderful city, excellent performances, awesome class. The Stratford Shakespeare Tour comes around every July, and is a two-week long course. During the first week, our class read five plays, and during the second week, we went to Stratford, Ontario, and saw them. Take a look in my journal to see what it was like in Stratford, what I thought of the class, and what we did while we were there!

From left to right: Meg, Me, Amy, Krista, Megan, Barb, Nick, Jess, Jeff

Day 1 (Tuesday, July 18, 2006) – Today we arrived in Stratford! We left at 8:30 am, after managing to wedge all of our luggage (and ourselves) into the van. Though it was crowded, it was really a nice ride up. We stopped for lunch and Meg Herod (there are two Megs, so I’ll call the other one Megan), Barb and I sat on the sidewalk by the parking lot and fed the seagulls; there was a really slow one and we kept trying to toss it food before the others could get there. The drive went really fast; a bunch of us talked most of the way up. I knew a few of the other people from classes we’d had before, but there were also some I didn’t know; it was a small-ish group, though–nine students, including me–and we got to know each other quickly. I enjoyed hearing the crazy stories from the teachers on board about their classes–I have a feeling Jeff and Nick are going to be really entertaining; they’re constantly making fun of each other. Nick decided that his dream is to open a Shakespeare restaurant where everything is named after something related to a Shakespeare play, and everyone tried to come up with the corniest ideas (wish I could remember them now!). The scenery was gorgeous as we drove through Canada–forests of tall pine trees all around us, and everything a vibrant shade of green.

We got here sometime in the middle of the afternoon and took our luggage into the hotel–it seemed like a small-ish place, but somehow ended up having a lot more room inside than I thought it would. It was laid out very strangely; the second floor was below the first, for one thing! The rooms were all a little different; mine was pretty big and had a comfy bed. I didn’t plan to spend much time there though, of course–I couldn’t wait to get out and explore! We pretty much all grabbed lunch and rested for a little while, though–I really needed to stretch out for awhile after that van ride, but after a little while I changed into nicer clothes for the play that night (Coriolanus), grabbed my camera and journal, and went out.

The town was so pretty and quaint–there were a lot of older buildings lining the streets, and not very much traffic. A lot of people rode bikes, I noticed–there were long rows of bikes parked along the sidewalks here and there. I also noticed the many brightly colored three-tiered flower baskets aligning the streets; the town seems to put a lot of effort into gardening. Stratford had a very laid-back feel; most people were there on vacation, after all. I just wandered around for awhile, not worrying about getting lost because the town wasn’t big enough to get lost in!

I ended up down by the moat, where dozens of swans were swimming and eating grass on the shore, while a group of musicians prepared to set off on one of the boats. It was a very peaceful, relaxed place; many people were walking their dogs or just coming down to watch the birds. I’d never seen so many swans together!

I ran into some of the other girls, and we tried to figure out why some of the swans seemed to be dancing together, spinning side by side in synch with one another. After a bit, we headed toward the Festival Theatre for the play. The path by the moat led us to the theatre. We were all sort of dreading this play, I have to admit, because we didn’t enjoy reading it–and because it was supposed to be around three hours long! Seeing the play was definitely much better than reading it, though–and I know that’s almost always true, but in this case, I truly didn’t know if I’d even be able to sit through it without passing out from boredom. The actor who played Coriolanus (Colm Feore), however, was excellent, and the portrayal of his mother was interesting, reminding me almost of Lady MacBeth and raising questions about whether a forceful woman might be intended to appear comical in a tragic play.

Barb and Krista with Colm Feore

The fighting scenes looked artificial; they were perfectly coordinated on purpose, but that made them seem predictable, making it difficult to suspend disbelief. The stage itself was a very nice one, and I found it amazing that, as Jess’s dad was telling us (her parents were in Stratford also, and knew a lot about the festival) it could be completely transformed despite its size.

The play was well-done, and I found myself looking forward to the four other plays that we would be seeing through the week. (Three of them were Shakespeare plays; the other two were not. Stratford puts on a lot of Shakespeare productions, but also has a lot of other plays. All the plays we were going to see were at night, and so we had the option of getting tickets for whatever matinees we wanted to see, too...there’s a program where people under thirty can get matinee tickets for around $20, and I think there’s also something for people over thirty. A few of us talked about seeing Oliver! some afternoon.) It was Amy’s birthday, so we went out afterward to the Old English Pub, which had amazing desserts (there was some sort of lemon merengue fluff that everybody loved), and celebrated.

The Festival Theatre

Amy with her amazing dessert

Day 2 (Wednesday, July 19, 2006) – Today was our second day in Stratford. Meg H., Krista and I went searching for breakfast and then we all met in Dr. Scott’s room to talk about last night’s play. Jeff gave a short presentation about social ideologies forming identity in the play, since we were each supposed to give a short presentation during one of the class discussions. None of us were enamored with the play, but we mostly all felt that it was better watched than read, and it led to some interesting discussion.

We ate lunch at a fabulous Indian restaurant named Rajas. I had chana masala, and it was a nice lunch with the gang. We all sort of dispersed after that, to take naps, do work, or go exploring. I went off to explore some of the shops. There were many interesting little places to go into: pottery shops, Native Canadian art galleries, bookstores, etc. I took a nap after that, and later ate dinner with Nick and Jeff at a coffee shop called Tango that Jess was raving about. She was right to rave! They had a lot of options for vegetarians like me, too.

I went down to the moat for a bit before the play to journal, and watched a group of musicians sailing up and down the river amidst flocks of birds. A group of rowers, with a leader that kept shouting at the others like a drill sergeant, kept flying up and down the moat. The weather, like yesterday, was gorgeous, in the 80's and 90's, though it got a little chilly later on. I met Meg, Barb, Megan and Krista again by the water and we took more pictures of birds before heading to the Tom Patterson Theatre to see Henry IV, Part I. (Meg and I decided that we’d make sure we took some pictures of people before we left Stratford!)

Krista, Barb, Meg, and Megan by the moat

This play was excellent! It was really funny; the actor who played Falstaff was hilarious. The actor playing Hotspur overacted constantly, though; no one is as animated and strung-out all the time as he was, and it didn’t seem like it was done for comedic effect. The sword fighting scenes were well-done; they were much more realistic than in Coriolanus. The closeness of the audience to the stage added another element of danger to the fighting scenes, and it was fun being that close to all of the action. It was extremely well done, and I think all of us really enjoyed it.

Day 3 (Thursday, July 20, 2006) – Today Meg, Megan and I walked around the moat in the morning, and we ended up finding a hidden garden near the Festival Theatre. It was absolutely gorgeous, with a pond and beautiful flowers and a stairway that led up to nowhere and back. After that, we found an art gallery with beautiful beads that you could make necklaces from, and the Megs made pretty necklaces. We headed back for class at eleven, and then we all headed over to York Street, the street closest to the moat, for lunch at a sandwich shop. The prices were good; there are definitely ways to be thrifty in Stratford. We ate near the moat, trying to stay under the trees in a terrace near the water because it started raining. Meg, Megan, Barb, Krista, and I headed to the library then to work on our presentations for awhile–we’d been so busy reading plays the week before that we hadn’t gotten much done yet for our presentations, and we knew we’d be in deep trouble if we didn’t! I decided to talk about the significance of colors in Elizabethan clothing, and luckily found some resources for that online, because the library didn’t have a great collection of books–even the Shakespeare section had pretty slim pickings. Around six o’clock we all had dinner together at Bendey’s, a restaurant near the hotel that had really good food, and then checked out a cute little new-and-used bookstore called the Book Stage. I found a book about how animals are portrayed in Shakespeare plays, and decided to come back for it if that’s the topic I decide to write about. (I was a little worried about writing the paper, because I didn’t even have a topic yet and I knew it was due the week after we got back from Stratford. I was glad we had an extra week to do it, though!) Then, because we’d spent too much time at the Book Stage, we hurried over to the Studio Theatre for Harlem Duet (which, incase you were wondering, is not a Shakespeare play, but is loosely–I repeat, loosely–based on Othello).

Jess, Amy, Meg and Barb on the porch of the Book Stage

I had no problem with the acting in the play; however, seeing the play performed brought out what I considered to be some flaws in the writing. The playwright, Djanet Sears, had created characters that did much more telling than showing, and it became more and more annoying as the play progressed. The language was odd, to say the least, and I wondered what the purpose was of having the actors sound so unnatural, reminiscent of Shakespearean language at times. It seemed like she was trying too hard to draw parallels between her play and Othello. The humor was too offbeat and gruesome at times–there was one instance where something actually made me feel nauseous, and I thought the playwright and director had gone too far. The play was well-acted and certainly made some excellent points about important social issues, but I didn’t admire many of Sears’ artistic choices. There was never a time during the performance, though, that I felt I just couldn’t sit through it. The plot itself was compelling, and I sympathized with the main character and with the other characters to some extent. The play was filled with interesting directorial choices, and I was interested in seeing how the director would handle the many transitions between different times and settings that happen rather abruptly throughout the play–some of them were really cleverly done.

After the play, I went out for a snack with Jess’s family, Megan, Jeff, and Nick. We headed to Bendy’s, and I discovered their fabulous fruit crisp with blueberries, rhubarb, strawberries, and ice cream. I could have definitely lived on that alone for at least a month! We kept our eyes open for actors, who are rumored (by Jess’s parents) to frequent there. I enjoyed talking with Jess’s parents, hearing about how they teach Shakespeare in their classes. Jess’s mom teaches in an elementary school, and has a bunch of Shakespeare books written for little kids–she says the kids love it, and I think it’s so wonderful to introduce Shakespeare to them early, before they become afraid of it!

Day 4 (Friday, July 21, 2006) – This morning we went on a tour of the costume warehouse–it was an enormous building of costumes; we saw all sorts of wigs, hats, boots, costumes, and props. We even got to try some of the costumes on, which was a lot of fun....

King Jeff in the costume warehouse

Me and Megan in our fab Shakespearean garb

Krista in costume

We also got to go to the Festival Theatre costume exhibition, which had some really amazing displays of show props and costumes. There were exhibits from Midsummer Night’s Dream, MacBeth, Into the Woods, and many more; I was especially impressed with those two. After that, we went back to the beautiful secret garden so the rest of the group could see it, and then I headed to Bloomer’s, which has every type of fries imaginable, with Barb and Meg.

Krista and Meg in the Theatre Gallery

Nick in the Festival Gardens by the Stairway to Nowhere

We went to the library for awhile to finish our presentations, and searched for some post cards. I wandered around taking pictures, and swung by the Book Stage to see if I could find anything to help me with my paper. I still needed some more inspiration; I had a couple of ideas, but didn’t know if I wanted to write a paper about them yet. Somehow, the time got away from

me there, and I ended up having to rush through the crowded Downie Street to The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. There were two older guys who were also practically sprinting to the Tom Patterson Theatre; we ran across Albert street just as the light changed, and it was so hilarious I started laughing and ran out of breath! I’m a pretty fast walker, so I got there just behind them. We got there in time, and I caught my breath as I found the group and took my seat.

I’d really liked reading this play and was excited to see it performed. There was an old woman sitting on the dark stage, dressed in black, staring straight ahead. From the beginning, it was very eerie, and the director used many special effects. The stage was very dark through much of the performance, but that didn’t bother me at all; it added to the suspense and allowed for some neat special effects. During one scene, an actor swung a lantern around that cast patterns of light across the stage and audience; it was a little disorienting, but not in a bad way; it enhanced the mood of the play. Each character had something strange and even a bit gruesome about them–Julia had huge warts on her face; the Duchess had heavy white powder on her face and was clearly a little older than the Duchess probably was intended to be, and many of the other characters had heavy powder and eye makeup and huge, crazy hair. These kinds of oddities complemented the strangeness of the fashions of the time; the women wore farthingales that created extremely unnatural figures. The play was extremely compelling and artfully done.

Day 5 (Saturday, July 22, 2006) – This morning, Meg and I walked around the moat at 8:30 because we’d promised ourselves all week we were going to go around it. It was gorgeous on the other side; there were some secluded areas with willow trees draped over the water, and these seemed to be the secret hideaways of the birds. We saw a pair of black swans with bright red beaks, and a baby swan that was trying to eat grass from the shore by our feet. The baby was absolutely adorable, and its mother let us stay there and watch it for a few minutes. It was making cooing sounds while it ate, and paddling its big flippery feet in the water. We saw some beautiful houses on that side of the moat, too. We walked down the path to the Shakespearean Gardens near the dam. A group of swans were parading down from York Street, where they’d been taking a stroll. They were taking up most of the path, though, and you do have to be careful of them or they’ll attack.

Swans taking a stroll

(In case you were wondering, the swans don’t live at the moat all year long. They’re kept in a large building somewhere outside of the town during the winter, so they don’t freeze. Then, to welcome them back, there’s a swan parade in the spring where they’re driven around the town and then returned to the moat.)

The English gardens, though they’re not really my style, were very pretty, and as we walked through them I was thinking about how gardens are a symbol of the widening divide between humans and nature. Exploring the gardens actually sparked the topic I decided to write about for my paper: how nature metaphors are used frequently in The Duchess of Malfi, and how they portray nature as something purely threatening. I was really glad to finally have a paper topic that I knew I could write an interesting paper about!

By the moat and the Shakespearean Gardens

The group eating lunch at the Pita Hut...try the falafel!

Later, Megan and I went to "Art in the Park," where a bunch of artists were trying to sell their work, and then we went off to look for the black swans. We passed by a wedding, and watched for a bit, but the bridal party was really long and so we moved on. On the other side, we saw what looked like a squirrel swimming by, and frantically tried to find it so we could take a picture to show the others, but we couldn’t find it anywhere. The other Meg said it was probably an otter, and she’s probably right because I didn’t think squirrels went swimming. Anyway, we went back and changed for the play, then went out for appetizers and desserts at the Old English pub before the show.

The play tonight was Much Ado about Nothing. Lucy Peacock, the actress who played the Duchess the night before, played Beatrice, and though her portrayal of the character was different from what I’d pictured, I enjoyed the play a lot. Benedick’s character was fabulous; he really made the show, and the age of the two characters didn’t bother me at all. The song "Hey Nonnie Nonnie" was really pretty–sort of haunting, with sharps and flats replacing other notes, and the musicians were wonderful. The play was about two hours and forty-five minutes long, but it didn’t seem that long at all...so it was a nice play to end the week with.

The Festival Theatre

The trip was wonderful, and I would love to go back to Stratford one day. There was truly never a dull moment, despite the town’s small size. It was a really peaceful place to be, too; everyone was very laid-back and happy to be there. Anyone who loves literature, theatre or birds would have a wonderful time!