I can now die happy. <3


Left Durham at two o'clock (ish) and caught the train to York. It was uneventful. Changed trains and headed to Birmingham. The train broke just after half-way. I don't know what went wrong, but we had to change trains at Derby, so we lost a bit of time there. Not that it really mattered, as I had half an hour to make my connection. All the same, I felt I had to virtually run across Birmingham from New Street to Moor Street. I did manage to catch my final train from Birmingham to Stratford. That one was pretty uneventful, too.

I did get some writing done, though! Wrote myself into a Dark and Scary Place with Uther (from Merlin), and then moved on to the slightly less Dark and Scary Dunking!Ianto Fic that I've been working on since the Trip of Whom. Actually, since I was on the train for five and a half hours, I got quite a lot done on it - especially since I was suddenly struck my inspiration half-way to York. :P

Anyway, I arrived first and hung around waiting for ice_elf. We met up about twenty minutes later, and walked up to the hotel. Amazingly, we managed not to get lost. However, it turned out that ice_elf had booked a room in the same B&B we stayed in with school, when we went on the Sixth Form Stratford Trip! :D

Quirky little conincidence, there!

We both dumped our bags, then headed back into the town. We were very lucky, becuase on Friday and Saturday, Stratford's annual Mop Fair was being held! The entire town centre was totally closed off, and packed with stalls and rides. We decided that, actually, food ought to be our priority, so we headed off to find someone.

We actually ended up going on a Ghost Tour instead. Now, I've been into the house before - in the daytime, with my parents. It's ... kind of interesting, but not the best attraction I've ever been to. (It's called The Falstaff Experience. I like the Penny Arcade.)

I worked myself up into a frenzy as we were waiting for the tour - especially when the previous tour walked out, and told us that one girl had felt a funny sensation around her neck, and hadn't spoken since leaving the house. UM.

So. Both of us very freaked out, ice_elf followed the guide into the house. We all said hello to Master Shrieves - the first known owner of the house, and its protective spirit - so that he would protect us from all the scary ghosts. For example: a man called John who apparently had a rather twisted taste for young blonde girls *looks pointedly at ice_elf* and sometimes follows them home; a murdered judge who was actually a crook; and an ancient monk-like figure with glowing red eyes, who freaks me out and makes me scared to look around even though just remembering that we were told about him has made me feel like I'm being watched.

So! We went around, and ice_elf had a couple of Ghostly Experiences. We went into this one room, where the ghost of a little girl was often seen, and we were holding hands - my right, her left. ice_elf swears blind that my hand went from being warm to being icy cold in a matter of seconds. I didn't really notice - yes, my hand was cold, but ... I didn't feel it happen suddenly. Maybe it did. I was slightly scared by this, especially because my other hand was perfectly warm. The freaky thing is, my right hand keeps going cold, while my left stays warm. *slgihtly worried*

The little girl - Lucy - is also often seen in the Penny Arcade, where she tries to show people her injuries (burnt hands and feet); ice_elf's hand started stinging all the time we were in there, and stopped as soon as we left.

She thinks it was Lucy. I'm inclined to agree. (Also, Lucy kept messing with our lantern - the only source of light - and making it go off. The tour guide swore blind that he wasn't doing anything, and that it was Lucy. Again, I think I agree.)

I may have had a slightly ghostly experience, although I'm not sure if it was just because I was freaked out. I mean, I'm a bit scared of the dark anyway and the tour guide was telling us the horrible fate of one of the bodied found below the cellars, while we were standing on the stairs (the most haunted part of the house, where a man was strangled to death on the bottom steps) ... and I started to feel really breathless. It might have been psychosematic (because the guy did mention that people often feel breathless on the stairs, due to the man who was strangled) or it might have been my general nervousness ... but then, it mgiht have been the strangled man's effect on me! Who knows.

Anyway, we came out of the tour and I think ice_elf was actually more freaked out than me. Amazing, I know!

We went back to the fair afterwards - making do with chips for tea - and went on some of the rides. The waltzers, a rollercoaster-thing and the dodgems stand out in my mind. We resolved to come back the next day and do more.

The next morning, we walked into town and wandered around the shops until lunchtime. In The Shakespeare Bookshop, they were selling production photographs, some of which were of David Tennant. I deeply regret not buying the one of him in Romeo and Juliet from 2000. (Also, is it just me, or is it slightly wrong that I was 11 when he was playing Romeo in the RSC ...?)

Then we had lunch in a nice little place whose name escapes me, and went back to the fair.

This time, we went on the ferris wheel, and then the Worst Ride Ever. It was called Stargate - hence why I had to go on it. I couldn't not. Basically, you stood in a big circle, and had a restraint pulled down over your head. Then the ride began to spin, pushing your outwards with centrifugal force. And then the circle lifted up (although you still had ground under your feet) ... and started to spin the other way, turning you upside down. It did this for ages ... and then stopped spinning around, and kept turning you upside down. Slowly.

It freaked me out!

I could not wait to get off. It nearly made me cry. I got off, and I was shaking like a leaf; I had to go and lean on a wall for a while and try not to be sick. So then we went on the Carousel, which made everything better.



Then ... it was time. We went back to the hotel, ice_elf laced me into my corset (which my mum bought me as a going-back-to-University present) and we set off to buy dinner before heading to the theatre. (My shoes rubbed the backs of my ankles raw within the first five minutes, but did I care? NO! Because I was going to the theatre!



For one of Shakespeare's lesser-known and lesser-performed plays, I thought Love's Labour's Lost was fantastic! It was witty, funny, romantic - everything you would expect from a comedy!

Well, except for the ending. But then, I think old Shakey was trying to be clever. After all, traditional tragi-comedies are sad all the way through, then suddenly happy at the end. Love's Labour's Lost reverses that - it's happy througout, but ends with a death and a separation of the lovers.

A separation which, one hopes, actually brings more to their relationships. After all, it could just be the fact that they are breaking their oath that makes the ladies so appealing. After all, men (and women) always want what they cannot have. A year and a day spent away from the ladies will test the love of the men.

It's a poignant ending - and one which is quite unfulfilling. It leaves you wanting more. You want to know what happens. Does Berowne make the dying laugh? Does the Prince spend a year and a day in exile from courtly life? Do the ladies accept them after the year is over? We don't know. Only Shakespeare could tell us - and sadly the play in which he potentially does so (Love's Labour's Won, the famously lost play mentioned in Doctor Who) is nowhere to be found.

Personally, I like to believe that Berowne did make the dying laugh, and that all the ladies accepted the suits of their menfolk quite happily after a year.

I was really impressed with the production, too. The actors were all fantastic - they really brought the characters to life. I especially liked, in the first scene, how two of the Lords who swear the oath (the two whose names escape me) just wandered onto the stage before the metaphorical 'curtain up' and stared munching at a picnic. It was brilliant! Then the bearded one tossed a grape, and the blonde one caught it in his mouth! (We all clapped, because that is a hard trick to master!)

The lighting in the final scene (yes, I'm a Theatre Geek - thank you, Mr. E and Mrs. J!) was just uneblievable. It was Lighting Done Right. I didn't notice that the lighting had slowly changed from golden to blue until long, long after it had done so. That's how it should be. I am suitably impressed. :)

Also, whoever thought of the Owl flying across the stage after most of the characters have left is a genius. It just leant a whole new note to the final moments of the play before Berowne and Rosaline left the stage.


The play was genuinely fantastic - but I have to admit, not the reason why ice_elf and I travelled all that way (five and a half hours each way on a train, for me! Five and a half! That's dedication, right there!).

We went to see David Tennant in the role of Berowne.

I was blown away. He was just ... ubelieveable. He really is an amazing actor. He can do the funny lines - and excels at them! - but he can also do the moving, clam, quiet lines, too. He delivers a sterling performance in Love's Labour's Won; he takes the lines and runs with them and makes you understand them and laugh at them and enjoy them, and that's wonderful.

His speech on love really moved me. I'm unashamed to admit it. He certainly can do a moving performance.

Also, lounging in a tree! Lounging in a tree making fun of his friends! XD

That was the funniest scene. I'm sorry, but the scene where he's in the tree (and the subsequent bit with the letter) was hilarious. Bloody brilliant! Berowne, you naughty, naughty man - pretending to be all pious and oath-keeping and betrayed when you're just as bad as everyone else! XD David Tennant, in that scene, was unbelievably amazing.

Also, after the first scene (prior to which he wandered onto the stage, lay down and put a hat over his face ... then was unceremoniously woken up by the Prince taking his hat, then havinghis pillow stolen so that he knocked his head - hard! - on the ground) he left via the exit ... six seats from where we were sitting! Six seats!

*total and utter glee*

Anyway. At the end of the performance, we went around to the stage door. There was already quite a crowd, and we though we had no chance to get close to the front ... until we spotted my dad, who had arrived early and saved us a space right next to the barrier! I was so incredibly grateful. So, we squeezed in, armed my dad with a camera and waited.

Less than a minute later - which had to be less than five minutes after the end of the show - The Man Himself walked out of the stage door with a big grin and said, "Hello!" in his bouncy little Scottish accent. (God, I would never get tired of hearing that man speak in his native accent. Well. In any accent, but ngh, Scottish accent! Is sexy! Yes!)

He went around the barrier, signing programmes and photos, and eventuall came to us. While he was signing my programme, I managed to get out an, "It was amazing! Thank you!" before he turned around and disappeared back inside with a cheery wave.

I can proudly say, now, that I have been within an arm's length of David Tennant. And, boy, is he good-looking. Seriously, he loses something on film or in photos; he is even better in real life. He's all tall and gangly and skinny and ngh! I am so delighted, though! Signed programme!

The man is wonderful! He didn't have to do that. I was expecting a wait of potentially fifteen, twenty minutes - to give him a break, I mean, just so he could catch his breath. He had, after all, been acting for a hours, and it was his second performance of the day! But no - he came straight out to say hello to his fans.

David Tennant: All-Round Nice Guy!

So, yeah. We went back to the hotel, both of us grinning from ear to ear the whole way and holding our programmes close to our chests and not quite able to believe that we'd just been within touching distance of David Tennant.

Like I said above: I can now die happy.

I think this ought to keep me going for a good few years now. Then I shall have to go and seek him out again - hopefully go and see him in another Shakespeare! - and this time have my photo taken with him! *total fangirl*



Before I went to see Love's Labour's Lost, David Tennant was one of my top ten favourite actors. Seeing him play Berowne changed that. He's now, officially, the unchallenged Number One.

I really do love him. He's one of the very few Famous People I would say yes to without thinking, if they asked me to marry them. (To give you some context, I would say no to: John Barrowman, Johnny Depp, Harry Lloyd ... and pretty much every other actor I squee about on this LJ.)

All in all? I had an amazing time. It really was worth it. I can't thank my parents enough for getting the tickets in the first place, and saving us a space so that we could get our programmes signed. Seriously.

*happy, fangirly sigh* I still haven't come down from Cloud Nine. All the way home on the train, I kept grinning to myself, unable to help it because he was right there! *big grin*

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