A Shakespeare-packed day out.

We're home from a few days away staying with Granny and Big Grandad near Stratford-on-Avon.  On Wednesday, while A went to watch cricket at Worcester with Uncle S, we (K, M & I) visited great-grandparents (and I had a lesson in crochet from my Grandma), went swimming with Granny and K & M balanced animals a lot.

One of M's efforts

And one of K's

On Thursday we were extremely fortunate in having this year's allocated summer's day (we had sunshine until about 4pm anyway when the rain started and hasn't really stopped since).  We went into Stratford and bought what seems to have been a good investment, given the enthusiasm of both K & M to return to Shakespeare's Birthplace.  We've bought tickets for all 5 properties (using a bogof voucher on a leaflet we picked up at the park & ride, buying 2 adults and getting 2 children free worked out cheaper than a family ticket), which lasts for 12 months.

We started off with the Birthplace, which K & M though was okay (some technical problems with their audio-visual dispalys didn't help), until we discovered the Shakespeare Aloud! actors in the garden.  They were happy to take requests and did some Taming of the Shrew for K (it's her favourite play!). 

After going into the Birthplace house we went back to watch them some more before heading off with the idea of getting an ice-cream and walking to Anne Hathaway's cottage, we did get the ice-cream but tired legs ruled out the long walk, so we stuck to the properties in town.  First we went to Hall's Croft, home of Shakespeare's daughter and her doctor husband.  K & M enjoyed doing the medicine trail, finding out about the various bizarre remedies that were administered for different ailments.  Crushed emeralds and other gemstones sprinkled on food or into drink as a rather expensive cure for poison was a particular favourite!  We then moved on to Nash's House and New Place where you can see archeology in progress at the dig of the house that Shakespeare bought and owned at his death.  By this time K & M were very keen to go back to the Birthplace to see more acting, so we went back, had another go at watching the audio-visual display (still not perfect but more successful this time).  It was rather quieter now and there were just 2 actors there, both men.  One of them gave us some Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing and very gamely they did the same scene from The Taming of The Shrew that K requested again, with one of the men playing Kate, and the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.  Historically more accurate than having actresses playing the roles, although the actors taking the female parts in Shakespeare's time probably won't have had a beard!  A little while later one of the actresses returned and replaced one of the men, and gave us some Midsummer Night's Dream.  By this time it had started to rain, so at times it was just for us.  After a break in the café the place had pretty much emptied and we had a couple of hours to kill before we needed to be at the theatre, so we went back into the house and found Jen, the lone remaining actress there and ended up chatting to her for nearly an hour.  We talked about all sorts of things from the girls' hobbies to sonnets (they're like limericks in that they have a particular structure but don't tend to be funny!).  In the end finding something to eat and getting to the theatre in time was rather a rush.

We went to see Twelfth Night. 

Viola and Sebestian reunited

Both girls really like the Shakespeare Without the Boring Bits version and we'd read the story a couple of times.  M wasn't particularly interested but K & I had enjoyed watching the BBC film with Felicity Kendall a few weeks ago.  M enjoyed parts of it, more in the second half than the first she said, she was interested enough to ask me who people were occasionally when she got a bit lost, but really it was all a bit much and a bit too late for her, particularly since she hasn't been sleeping particularly well lately.  K, on the other hand, who is a night owl anyway and much more interested, was transfixed throughout.  She had no problem following the story and giggled madly in places.  A kind lady we were sitting next to lent her her programme to have a look at and the gentleman commented how unusual and lovely it was to see children their age enjoying Shakespeare.  In conclusion, we will definitely be looking out for productions coming to Nottingham on tour, and possibly staying with Granny and Big Grandad again to see something else, but next time we'll try to go to a matinee if M wants to come or I'll just take K to an evening performance if she isn't bothered.