My birthday was on Friday and, in a suprisingly cool move on behalf of my parents, they pretended to understand my theatre and performance love and helped me out with tickets and a hotel in Stratford. I have been DREAMING of Stratford ever since grade nine and I was sooooooooooo excited to finally be going. See, here’s how it happened. I somehow stumbled upon their facebook page, became a fan, and the next day they had an offer that I couldn’t refuse. So I didn’t. I called in the day after the posting and somehow got two fine tickets well before they ran out. I couldn’t find a single person to go with me and I have zero issues with going by myself (been going to shows alone since I was 16 anyway!). I alerted my folks and great aunt that I was gonna be gone like the wind on Saturday and they thought they might as well turn it into a weekend thanks to another Stratford offer that I had received by mail. You see, I signed up on the website so I could stay up to date on festival goings-on and I am ever so glad I did! They mailed me an offer for the July 31st showing of Macbeth for 50% off. 50% off of ~$130 is significant and, since even my mom knew who Colm Feore was, she thought she’d come down, too. Woo, this meant that we’d stay the night at a decent hotel and I had a shot of seeing a 2pm show on Saturday.

Saturday was an expensive day. I wanted to see what Susan Coyne had done with Checkov’s Three Sisters but I had resigned myself to making a separate trip to do so. I ‘innocently’ made sure we wandered past a theatre at noon so I could see what rush tickets were going for. It was not as significant a difference as the Macbeth show but my mom was cool with springing for a single ‘cheap’ here-are-the-back-of-the-actors section ticket at around $63 for me while she went wandering around. Did I mention Stratford is not even remotely cheap?? This meant that I’d be happy and she could wander around into every little store without me dragging my feet. I wound up with the best seat in the house. I could see everyone at all times except for two scenes when Vershinin has his back to me yet didn’t block my view of any of the others. So great. Funnier than I expected, to boot.

The play that lead to this whole trip was absolutely brilliant. Ever Yours, Oscar consisted of Brian Bedford reading aloud letters from Oscar Wilde from before and after his time in prison. He’d offer a little bit of context for the letters but otherwise it was a straight reading on a bare stage and it was completely captivating. I’m going to write more about the three plays in greater detail after I sort out my own thoughts on the works.

btw, it is lovely to write actual text again. I need to find the happy medium between text and video and images :)