Quiet...ahhhh

Since all but three of the students in the program are travelling in other parts of Europe right now, the flat is very quiet. It's strange, but it's nice for a change. I cleaned up my room and did the dishes, and the cleaning lady comes tomorrow; after she's been here, the flat will be quiet and wonderfully clean! I miss my roommates though - they make my life so much more entertaining!

In addition to being quiet, today was blissfully slow-paced. I slept in (you don't want to know how late) and then spent most of the afternoon looking through lists of fringe shows to find some I wanted to go see. By the way, fringe theatre isn't a term I made up: there's West End shows, off West End shows, off off West End shows, and then fringe shows. I don't know exactly what the difference is between the last three categories, but I think they're essentially ranked from big, flashy shows in large theatres on main roads meant to attract big crowds, down to small theatres above pubs putting on unknown or new plays on a small budget to a small audience.

After looking through all those shows, I just had to go to one tonight! I chose "Madagascar", which was playing at Theatre 503, an intimate space above the Latchmere Pub. It was definitely unique, which I appreciated. The set and lighting were very simple and none of the three actors changed costumes. The script was written entirely in monologues to the audience, so the characters never spoke to each other. It was very well-acted; I was especially impressed since the actors couldn't really feed off of each other since they never interacted. The play asked a lot of questions that it (gratefully) didn't attempt to answer. Questions like: Does what I remember or what I don't remember define who I am? Do I let the details of reality blind me to the truth? Do I deserve punishment for what I do, or what I don't do? In the context of the story, the questions were really poignant, and made me stop and think for a minute, which was refreshing. Overall, it was thought-provoking and well performed, but nothing to ooh and ah about visually (design-wise).

Time to hit the sack! Tomorrow, I'm going to start working on some family history, since I have ancestors from London. I hope to find some names that we don't have records for, maybe from old parish records or even tombstones. After all, this might be the only chance I get to look for original documents about these people who lived here 2 or 3 or even 4hundred years ago! Wish me luck!