Macbeth

By William Shakespeare

[Fresh from victory on the battlefield, the
celebrated general and nobleman Macbeth
receives a prophecy from three witches that he
will one day become king of Scotland. Driven by
his own ambition and that of his power-hungry
wife, he murders King Duncan and seizes the
throne for himself. Forced to commit murder
again and again to maintain their grip on power,
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth become haunted by
guilt and paranoia, spiralling into madness and,
eventually, death.]

Can I just start by saying - I READ A SHAKESPEARE PLAY FOR FUN.

If you'd have known me back in secondary school or even college you would know how much I loathed Shakespeare. Annotating every single blasted word drove me up the wall.

But I found myself, a few months ago, wanting to attempt a reading of his darkest play out of pure curiosity. As a writer, he is worshipped. So what is all the fuss about?

Funnily enough, I rather enjoyed reading Macbeth.

The version I read had a sort of translation page opposite the actual Shakespearian play which was very handy indeed. I don't think I would've enjoyed it half as much if it wasn't for that because I still probably wouldn't have understood at least 60% of it.

But it was good. I enjoyed the story and the characters. I seemed to prefer scenes with Macbeth or Lady Macbeth in them, or the witches, because they were the scenes that were a lot more dramatic. I was always wondering who they'd kill next or what prophecy the witches would come up with next.

The only thing I wasn't particularly happy about were the sudden write-offs of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. I think I would've liked to see what actually happened to them both as their deaths were off-stage.

However, saying that, the way it was written might've been very effective in play format, so who knows?

Maybe I'll try Romeo and Juliet soon...



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Romeo and Juliet, The Garrick Theatre

Image from Pinterest

So when this goes live I don't know what I will be doing but I should (fingers crossed) have had a blissful anniversary weekend with the love of my life 😍

Anyway, I saw Romeo and Juliet on probably one of the hottest days of the year in the midst of July.

I took a half day at work and met my friend, Yasmin, at Charing Cross.

The show started at half two so I'd grabbed a wrap from WH Smiths and she grabbed a quick McDonalds (is it just us or when it's boiling do you just not want to eat??)

We were so excited because Richard Madden (aka Robb Stark from Game of Thrones!!!) was playing Romeo.

Not the whole reason we booked the tickets at alllllll 😉

Well, unfortunately, we arrived at the theatre and there on the wall was a notice to say that Richard Madden was indisposed due to a running injury.

A RUNNING INJURY.

God damn it.

Anyway, we settled ourselves into our seats (the tickets I'd booked were slightly cheaper with a notice that there would be a pillar blocking the view), the room was considerably cooler than the outside thank the Gods.

The pillar didn't seem to be in too much of my way, it was just obscuring whatever happened to be slightly to the right of the stage. Not a problem at all, right?

Ha, ha, ha.

It just so happened that Romeo's characters always stood in that exact spot so that I could rarely see him.

Well at least it wasn't concealing Richard Madden from view ey? Just his understudy (unfortunately I can't remember his name and we didn't pick up a programme - he was very good though).

Lily James made a stunning Juliet, the costumes and her performance equally beautiful.

The sets were also brilliant.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart for all you Harry Potter fans), the play itself was set in what seemed to be the 50s, with the Capulet's and Montague's dressed more like gangsters than in Shakespearian dress.

The masked ball and the final scene were probably my favourite.

Lily James rewarded us with a slice of her singing voice which was quite lovely actually and the whole forbidden love theme had me rooting for them even though I knew what was coming!

It was a little hard to follow the strong Shakespeare dialogue at times, but there were quite a few humourous bits as well as the odd song which we weren't expecting.

Derek Jacobi was also brilliant and worth a mention.

I definitely felt more educated once we left. 

It's different from a full-on musical, a lot to take in, but an interesting experience and maybe one I will try again whether or not the male lead is someone from Game of Thrones!

Life Lately

Well, summer sure has arrived.

London has been sweltering these past few days. My window hasn't been shut in months. There isn't any air in my room even with a fan on, circulating warm air.

But, you know what?

I'm enjoying it.

I used to hate summer. Loathe it in fact. I felt like the heat never agreed with me because I always felt mneh whenever it got over 23 degrees.

I don't know what changed.

Maybe because Adeel really likes the sun and it had an effect on me? Or maybe because I'm a lot happier than I used to be and happy people tend to like the sun I guess.

It's been a quiet few weeks at work with my boss away on his holidays, leaving myself and my other colleague to hold the line in his absence.

We were both worried chaos would rain down on us with an urgent crisis popping up here, there and everywhere. But, nothing of the sort happened. Not one thing. Nada.

I suppose I should appreciate the quiet time as I'm sure it will be busy again soon enough.

The only busy day turned out to be the day before I knew I wasn't going to be in due to an ASAP dentist appointment for my first filling.

But all was under control again by Monday. Filling went ahead with no problems and I feel like a proper adult now with all these weird, adult-y problems (I can't even see the filling).

I also went to see Romeo and Juliet on Wednesday afternoon with a friend which was different.

I'm so used to watching musicals that the lack of music and the strong Shakespearian meant we actually had to concentrate for the couple of hours instead of sitting back and relaxing.

Admittedly, we did only book to see it because a certain Mr Richard Madden (aka Robb Stark) was meant to be Romeo. But, alas, he had a jogging injury so his understudy performed in his place.

We still got to see Lily James and Derek Jacobi though, which was nice.

This weekend has been a slow one, but well needed with the heat we're trying to live through.

Hopefully I'll get to go away somewhere nice soon.

Dreaming of a proper summer holiday.

And also kind of feeling a little regret this week seeing a lot of people posting graduation photos and going off to prom.

Okay, so I live near a school and I saw those people and only those all dressed up, filing onto a number of coaches, evidently going to prom.

My Facebook is the one that has been filled with all of these graduation photos and people announcing their new jobs or new locations and certificates and degrees.

I guess I'm just jealous because I never got a prom and for my graduation it poured it down with rain and I wore jeans instead of a dress. 

Half of my family couldn't even come in to see it, they had to stream it in a restaurant just outside. 

Plus I realised I felt all alone in there. I was surrounded by classmates and teachers and other pupils but I couldn't feel more alone.

They say university is the time for making the "friends for life". 

But he was sat outside with my family, unable to get in due to a two-ticket-per-student rule. Plus he graduated a couple days ahead of me because he was in a different school.

I never really knew how disappointed I was with it all until I saw all of these other people posting their happy, sunny photos with huddles of friends and family.

Sorry for the downer of a post, but a girl is feeling pretty rubbish about it all and wanted to write it out.

Hope your week was a more successful one.



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