Just finished Aziraphale and Crowley at The Globe 😊

@neil-gaiman

The Globe is a Good Omens fan bc of course they are! :D ❤

Mice from The Fir Tree at The Globe, 2021

I love the Globe Insta account 😂

We talk a lot about how Crowley and Aziraphale make each other smile, and how they're united through their shared excitement about the world. While this is very valid, I feel like we're forgetting about another important part of a relationship: mutual complaint.

Oh, how much I adore this brief moment between them.

Do you know how much trust it probably takes for someone like Aziraphale to openly complain about something related to his work?

First of all, he is not allowed to complain about anything in Heaven other than Hell. We see this a lot in S1 when he tries to discuss the plans of Armageddon and is repeatedly (even violently) shut down by the archangels. He is an Angel. He works for Heaven, the so-called Good Side. Everything he does, he should do with delight. Being unhappy about a task? Not wanting to do something, let alone disagree with it? It’s just not on.

Second of all, the way Aziraphale says it, he is expecting a certain reaction from Crowley, an affirming one, that is. He is saying it in a way that is asking: “Isn’t that awful?” He is not afraid to be judged, rather the opposite: He believes that Crowley will show him sympathy. And most amazingly, Crowley does.

Not only does Aziraphale trust Crowley enough to complain about something and communicate negative emotions about his work, but he also knows Crowley well enough to anticipate his understanding. He makes himself vulnerable and is rewarded with validation in return.

Even if this was already part of Crowley’s plan to speak about The Agreement, Aziraphale wouldn’t know it. And if we're honest, it doesn't really matter. He trusts Crowley because Crowley deserves his trust.

Sure, getting excited about the same things is fun. But additionally, being able to complain to somebody and knowing that they will be on your side, building a foundation of mutual trust by shared dislike?

Damn. That truly is some love right there.

Dancing at The Globe

So, I have been lucky enough to see Comedy of Errors and Macbeth at the Globe recently. After Comedy of Errors, they did a dance - a jig, which would have been what happened after plays during Shakespeare's time.

After Macbeth, they did not do a dance because to a modern audience, that would have felt out of sync with the mood of the play (for obvious reasons).

But (if my understanding is correct) historically, during Shakespeare's time, the cast would have danced after tragedies, as well as comedies.

And whilst I wouldn't suggest doing that for Hamlet...something you could do would be a slow dance. You could do it with really any combination of characters, but the way I've been imagining it is with Horatio, Hamlet, Laertes, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (good luck to any cast getting Hamlet and Laertes off staged and changed in time but these things are doable). All the dead characters would be in white, so only Horatio would wear the clothes he wore throughout the play.

Hamlet dances with Horatio, Rosencrantz with Guildenstern and Ophelia with Laertes, giving us three types of love; romantic, friendship (sorry to R&G shippers, please don't come for me, I love you all and this works equally well if you see them as romantic) and familial. About half way through the music, they move into a sort of "Elizabethan style" slow dance, moving between pairs and allowing everyone to at some point briefly dance with everyone, but everyone ends up with their original pairing at the end.

Perhaps at some point Ophelia breaks down and is just held by Laertes, perhaps at some point Rosencrantz and Guildenstern just stop dancing and stand arm in arm watching Horatio and Hamlet dance...the boys dance, foreheads pressed against each other, not wanting to let each other go to the very end...Horatio's crying, or they are both crying, and Horatio is shaking his head and holding Hamlet as if to say "please don't go".

But towards the end of the music, the five actors playing the dead characters go to the back of the stage area, leaving Horatio alone downstage. One by one, they exit through the door at the back of the stage, Hamlet being the last to go, leaving Horatio standing alone as the music fades.

This could be performed with any number of pieces of music, but when I was imagining this, these were the pieces that I listened to. With that last one, particularly, I imagined Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Laertes and Ophelia emerging first and dancing around Horatio before Hamlet enters upstage and walks towards Horatio, pulling him into a dance.

Aziraphale in his head: I do so enjoy a good grape....Oh dear! He's quite a different kind of snack... I'd like to pop him in my mouth as well...

at this point my brain played the soundbite of Tennant saying "oooh, saucy"

While Shakespeare is still trending, he and his group The Lord Chamberlain’s Men pulled the best revenge on their landlord in 1598.

In 1598, their lease on their theater- The Theatre- expired and their landlord- Giles Allen- was a Puritan and decided he didn’t want a theater on his land anymore. So while Giles Allen was out of town during the Christmas holiday, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men dismantled The Theatre in the middle of the night, moved it down The Thames, and rebuilt it in a new location. And that theater was named The Globe.

So when people say Shakespeare is boring, remember: he and he friends literally stole a theater to get back at their landlord.

LEGO Ideas:

The Globe

Set: 21332

2022

Pieces: 2585

Photographs by Marc Brenner, The Globe Theatre 2024 production of Much Ado About Nothing, starring Amalia Vitale, Ekow Quartey, Lydia Fleming, and Adam Wadsworth.

— there are some things I want to say, many of which are regarding race!

The fact that Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is receiving hate the fact she’s playing Juliet is not surprising, since people do not need reasons to hate black women. She’s a dark-skinned pretty woman but of course, because she has prominent black features she’s seen as manly and shouldn’t be playing alongside someone like Tom Holland. I’m not one to put down people but Tom Holland is not God’s gift, and neither is he publicly defending his co-star, a matter that I won’t get into as the focus is Francesca. The role of Juliet is one that was originally played by a man, and since then has been played by people of different ethnicities, some being black women. The fact people are using her appearance or the fact she’s deemed as “not conventionally attractive” is disgusting as if that’s an excuse. I’m glad that over 800 black actors signed a letter in solidarity because of the racial abuse as well as the production company who issued their own statement.

POCs especially darker-skinned women are constantly the target of racial abuse even over things that don’t exist and yes I am talking about fan-casts, especially tangled. I haven’t watched the film but I know the source material isn’t from Brothers Grimm but a Persian poem written in the 10th century by Ferdowsi, 8 centuries before it was turned into a “German folklore.” It’s hilarious how micro-aggressions and racism come out when people think white characters aren’t at the centre of it all. People crying about how their younger selves Would hate to see a stunning South Asian actress in the place of a blonde hair, blue-eyed ADAPTION of an original when brown and black girls had little to no representation at all. “Why can’t we stick to the originals?” Please look up what the original is before you start with your insults specifically those who are crying on TikTok or trolling on Avantika Vandanapu’s Instagram.

And lastly, stop bringing Tiana into it. She’s based on a real person just like Pocahontas, their race is important to their stories, black and indigenous, it’s tiring and also just foolish to post edits of “if they can have an Asian Rapunzel why can’t we have a white Tiana” when it’s clear that missed the plot of the princess and the frog, blind to/ ignoring its micro-aggressions (that are written in solely for a black character) and are just showing their bias all in defence of a film that doesn’t even exist.

And before anyone starts on “Why don’t you just invent your own characters?” Many have tried and the movie itself wasn’t watched, had little to no promotion or has been whitewashed but of course that gets little backlash.

And don’t get me started on wish…

So just to conclude, stop attacking us!

June 6th, 2023 | Less than 10 days left in the UK! I tried to enjoy the sun as much as I could while it lasted in Cambridge, but mostly: today I went to the Shakespeare Globe Theatre to see A Midsummer Night's Dream and it blew my mind. For some context: most of my followers probably don't know this, but I first created this blog under the name a-study-in-shakespeare. At the time, I was obsessed I would most likely have chosen English as a my major if a valuable Shakespeare course was offered by my uni because I fell in love with Hamlet at 14 yo and I tried to read and see as many plays as possible over the years.

Seeing a Shakespeare play in English had never been possible before, and woaw going to see my first one at the Globe of all places (truly) felt like a dream. I'm not familiar with the Globe's productions but I figured it'd be kind of traditional, maybe a bit stuffy and I'm so glad I was wrong. The cast is inclusive and diverse and so talented, the production is magical, whimsical, tragic and incredibly fun, I wish I could find the right words. I will remember this day for a very long time ✨

me: *minding my own business and trying to save money*

the globe: hey check this out

To winnow it out from the crowd, one of the best staging choices I've seen for Julius Caesar

was the moment in the Globe 2014 production where Brutus asks his servant Strato - who’s been sitting with his back to the audience and wearing a hat with a wide brim - to help him commit suicide;

Strato stands while taking off his hat to reveal that he’s played by Caesar’s actor.

(a collective gasp went around the theatre; really lent a whole new meaning to ‘Caesar, now be still. I killed not thee with half so good a will’)

“All the world is stage” (c) Aziraphale and Crowley at the Globe! (Or rather on the bench near the Globe, but still.) *** I’ve been experimenting with the doll-making technique for the last couple of months. I’m still not sure whether they’re better than my earlier ones or not?? They are still textile apart from heads and hands which are made of artificial clay. I just wanted them to have noses and fingers and eyes that don’t come off, you know... 

Ended up picking up this new Hamlet notebook...this skirts the edge of how much I'll get merch that uses the To Be or Not To Be speech but that a. it's a collection of quotes and just sort of...a random assortment, in a way I quite like b. it's a notebook, not a badge or t-shirt or something and c. the way they highlighted Horatio's name in the philosophy quote all sold me on it.

....not going to lie, mostly it was c.