back to brecht

It’s weird, this feeling.  Feeling closure without really closing anything.  I feel I’ve somehow come full circle while moving forward, like the ground beneath my feet has moved as i continue on my path.

Two years ago, I had the most amazing summer of my life: rewarding, fulfilling, engaging.  A milestone and a measuring stick.  And somehow, somehow, this semester has almost been better.  There were rough patches, but they didn’t last too long, and more than that, there were months and days and moments of living in this city.  There were moments of rhapsody when I felt fully and truly like a Londoner.

Two years ago, I saw a fantastic production of a Brecht play two nights before my return to the states.  Tonight, I saw a fantastic production of a Brecht play two nights before my return to the states.  And it feels so right.  So poetic and perfect.  Theatre has become such a huge part of my life here, part of my routine, that to see one final show just fits.  Two years ago, it was The Life of Galileo with Simon Russel Beale in the title role: a play about genius and its struggle against hegemony.  Tonight, it was The Good Soul of Szechuan with Jane Horrocks in the title role: a play about the absence of gods and the struggle to be good in inhuman conditions. The world is not what it was but it is also continuing in a loop on changing ground.  Brecht wrote more than half a century ago, but he continues to be produced and to be pertinent.  Theatre is powerful like that.  It can encapsulate and expand, be both the microcosm and the macrocosm.  It can make me feel okay about leaving this city I fall in love with every day–maybe not better, but okay; calm, fulfilled, bittersweet, proud.

I [alien] Paris

It’s getting really busy heading into the last fortnight here in London (I will not get emotional about this . . . yet).

Theatre last week: Billy Eliot (good, not great musical. but fab dancing), Henry VI part 1 with Joan of Arc as a character that really interests me and lots of great directorial decisions, but also an image that might prompt the invention of brain bleach.

I went to Iron Man with Jillian and Joe on Thursday (yeah, suck it, finally a movie comes out in Europe first), and it was bombastic and fun and an overall great blockbuster, thanks in large part to Robert Downey Jr., who just lit up the screen with his wit and talent. It also makes me appreciate Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang even more, which is a big feat considering it was already in my pantheon of movies.

Friday: PARIS! I wasn’t especially looking forward to the trip before I got to the train station. Don’t get me wrong, I was all for museums and seeing Aliya, but Paris has just never really had that special appeal to me. All things seemed to conspire to prove the glory of the city this weekend, though.

Beautiful weather all three days we were there! The hostel was fine, nice location not far from Montmartre, fairly clean, bright colors. Friday we ended up walking on the Ile St.-Louis and getting delicious Berthillon ice cream, then we got lost trying to find Shakespeare and Co, a famous and fabulous English bookstore. The inside is like every book lover wishes their home would be: walls lined with books, stacks on the floor, on the furniture, antique books, notes from all over the world left on a mirror on the second floor. Oh, yeah, did I geek out.

Then we walked around and in the Latin Quarter and the Jardin Luxembourg and got dinner in this quaint little restaurant that reminded me of that restaurant in the end of Love Actually but smaller. The food was delicious and not super expensive (a menu for €16). The old guy waiter apparently flirted with me–at the very least he asked if we were Italian, wtf?–which would prove to be a general theme for our dinner experiences. Aliya would speak great french and I’d try when I ordered and generally “look cute” while attempting french (aliya’s words, not mine), and we got great service all around.

Saturday we spent five hours at the Musee D’Orsay (including lunch in the 5th floor cafe with views of the city through a clockface), which was great. THen we went to my favorite place in Paris: the Musee Rodin garden, and it was free and beautiful and we recharged while laying on the grass. In the evening, we were all about Montmartre: crepes consumed on the steps of Sacre-Coeur, walking down the cutest streets in the world ™, seeing the Lapin Agile (note to self: reread Picasso at the Lapin Agile), and eating (this time al fresco) at another adorable restaurant: Le Maison Rose. Afterwards, we watched the street performers around the Basillica, including some amazing fire baton twirlers.

(TJ!)

Sunday, it turns out, all the national museums were free (first sunday of the month), so we went to the Modern Art Museum at the Centre Pompidou (which looks like a giant hampster palace), then the Musee Picasso, and back to the Musee Rodin so aliya could actually go into the museum. Finally, back to montmartre in search of pastries and bread for me to take back. The train was so easy: a little over 2 hours and a 15 min walk to nido from st. pancras. Plus, I got to upgrade to “leisure select class” for only £5, and that included a three course meal, wine, water, and tea. Man, was that cool. I’m guessing it’s because there weren’t that many people on the train with Monday being a bank holiday in the UK, so most people coming back on Monday.

And last night I saw one of the coolest things I’ve seen in London: the Fitzrovia Radio Hour. It’s like a cabaret where the troupe of actors performs a 1940s radio program consisting of two plays, a few brief interludes, and even words from the sponsor (last night: London Salon tea). It was in this little basement bar of the Tottenham court road, with 40s style wallpaper and tables. It was rough around the edges, but utterly charming, and the audience and actors were great. I went with Brittany, who has been before and without whom I would have forgotten completely.

I’ve got a presentation on a paper in about two hours (Shylock and the Jewish Other), a paper due tomorrow (Deconstructing categories of the feminine in Shame and A Passage to India), and two papers due next week. I’m getting actually quite upset about leaving, to the point where it hit me yesterday and it was so surprising that I actually lost my breath for a moment. So I’m taking as much advantage of this city as I can in these last eleven days (and of course now it’s consistently pretty weather-wise).