Not a Bard Day

It was a very dear friend's birthday this weekend, and as she is a big Shakespeare fan then what better way to celebrate that to visit Stratford upon Avon and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

We set off early and had a lovely trip through the Welsh and English countryside's, and arrived in Stratford slightly earlier than planned, and despite the traffic chaos that greeted us as we got to the outskirts of the town. A nice leisurely walk around the riverside where we witnessed a dragon boat race, and then a wander through the town where we found this quaint little tea rooms in a very oldy worldy building. By now the sun had burned through the early mist and fog and it was absolutely gorgeous sitting in the team room gardens. Time seemed to have marched on a little too quick and we only had quarter of an hour to get back to the theatre, but thankfully it wasn't that far and we made it in plenty of time.

The play we saw was 'The Comedy of Errors' which funnily enough given the title is one of Shakespeare's comedic plays. The story is of two sets of twin brothers, one of them both called Antipholus and the other both called Dromio, with the brothers Dromio servants to the brothers Antipholus. They get separated early in their life, and the story then sees them years later in the same town where they get confused for each other with hilarious consequences. There were a couple of standout performances amongst the cast, Dromio of Ephesus played by Felix Hayes and Antipholus of Syracuse played by Jonathan McGuiness. It certainly was a very funny and enjoyable play, which is certainly enhanced with the new stage at the RSC.

An obligatory walk around the RSC Shop after the play, and then we headed back into Stratford to find a place to eat and a lovely little Italian restaurant. Delicious food, although I thought my main course wasn't going to be as finicky as it was, I had to peel prawns....very messy! Lol!

We arrived back in time to watch the best bit of the Last Night of the Proms, where Britain goes utterly bonkers. Hard to believe that it was just a week ago that I was actually there.

It was a great day!