Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Living La Vida London: Day 11

A piece of advice for those who are looking to study abroad: If you're going to study abroad, make sure that your class doesn't take time away from your cultural experience. Or suck the life and happiness out of you.
I am obviously referring to the huge essay I had to write this week on a subject I didn't much care for. I could talk all day long about Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, but the earlier fantasy stuff- the stuff from before the English were really established Christians- that I do not like as much. I think I would appreciate those things more if I actually read Old English and the like. My professor can read and speak four dead languages, so that's a thing.

I did finish my paper just as I promised myself that I would, and headed out to see The Cripple of Inishmaan starring the fantastic Daniel Radcliffe. There were so many girls around my age there and so I knew that getting a picture with him would be next to impossible, but I was up for the challenge because if anybody can get a picture with him, it would be me.

It turns out that the play is written by Martin McDonagh  who also wrote a rather dark and gritty play which happens to be a favorite of mine called The Pillowman. So the play happened and it turned out to be a dark comedy (which is my favorite genre of play) and the entire cast was absolutely wonderful! It is set in Ireland, which makes it all the more brilliant, and Dan plays a crippled boy around my age and does it very well. I would describe the way in which he is crippled, but it would take showing in order to get an accurate picture. But anyway, I really enjoyed the play. So I headed to the stage door and this is what I came upon:
So the whole picture and autograph thing was a no, and I accepted that keeping in mind that my friends and I already have a plot to show up to the stage door and get his autograph before the show's run is over, so it's all good. I did get to speak to this lovely man named Conor MacNeill who basically plays the village idiot in the play, and very well I might add. He was wonderful and I am honored to have gotten a photo with him.


So when Dan did finally appear, there was no screaming but actually just a general rush to get his attention and/or autograph... go figure. That tiny little guy to the right of the picture with the blue baseball cap is Dan himself. And he really is absolutely tiny. He's also apparently a huge American football fan and he loves the New York Giants, and that's probably because he lives in New York City when he's not doing stuff over here. So Grant, you and Daniel should become best friends so you can teach him all there is to know about football. He's obsessed and wants to know everything there is to know about football according to the playbill.

And finally, this is the theatre in which I saw the play. It's beautiful just like most everything else here in England.


Oh, and in case my readers weren't aware, today is my parent's 25th wedding anniversary. They're now a "Quarter of a Century" couple.(Ten points to your Hogwarts house if you got the reference I just made.)
 They should have a medal or something!



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