After a long day of work in London, and not feeling well, I got back to the hotel around 6:30pm. I took a quick thirty minute nap. And when I got back up, I was summoned back to work. Everything is an emergency. So I was late to our 9:15pm dinner reservation but the Uber got me to dinner around 9:30. And we had a nice dinner, waiter's choice. We had drinks at the pub (or actually on the sidewalk outside the pub) until it was time to head to the Globe Theater for the midnight matinee. For starters, insane that midnight matinee is even a thing. They could end at midnight and still call it that, but no this actually starts at midnight and they do an unabridged performance for two and a half hours. Didn't get back to the hotel until 3am. But the seats in the Globe (authentic to the time) are so uncomfortable I couldn't even fall asleep like I usually do. At least we got seats! They sell standing room tickets right in front of the stage for 5 pounds. And I don't think I could've stood for 2.5 hours at midnight after a long day, though the peasants were having a grand ole time. We got seats in the gents boxes, which are a little behind the stage. So we're actually in full view of the audience; it's where the pretty noblemen would go to be seen. We did pay double what we should've because the empty seats next to us in the box (all the boxes were empty) were considered restricted view and we should've just bought those. But anyways, from behind, you don't catch all of the actors expressions. The expressions are kind of an essential part of Shakespearean comedy. The laughs are not just in the words themselves but in the acting. And they got serious laughs.
I loved the period band that sits on the second level balcony above the stage. They play french horn, percussion, tuba, trumpet--and there's even a sousaphone. I will say the plot itself I could not follow, even though I've seen the play before. There is famously a Welsh character, whose accent was totally unintelligible to the American viewer. There is also a part where they go into the audience and interact with the standing folks. They wear Eyes Wide Shut masks and scare people. It's a good fun time.
