canals5

Day 5
Wednesday
7/24/02
     The run was a bit shorter today because of our extra progress yesterday, but still, seven locks and six miles ate up the hours. We tied up for the night at Cape Locks, near the canalside Cape of Good Hope pub. Before long we were all in the van and on our way to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Edward III at the Swan Theater. When we arrived at Shakespeare's historic town, we still had two hours to explore and have dinner before curtain time. A couple blocks of wandering brought us to The Avon River.
     The river is not large, maybe 100 yards across. Water taxis, filled with smiling people, wove their way back and forth across the waterway. One of the transports was a punt, a flat-bottomed boat that could carry maybe 15 people and which was cranked across the river on a chain. There were rowboats for rent and several were out on the river. In these boats sat youthful ladies, smiling as they watched their strong young men with rippling biceps pull against the river's current. A small wooden viewing platform was built a few feet out over the water. It provided a perfect panorama of the river, the water, the boats, and the more distant spire of Holy Trinity Church. People threw bread at the swans, ducks, and Canada geese as the birds squabbled and competed for the best positions. The weather was so nice that local folk were walking around with some disbelief. Again that recurrent feeling, that all was too perfect; a dream from which I must unfortunately wake up, or perhaps, a movie or play. The Bard's line from As You Like It came back to me: All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players…
     Sara's voice snapped my reverie, "We had better think about eating…it's getting late."
     We drifted back towards the Swan Theater. Still, there was time for us, an embrace in a delightfully private and shaded spot between the river and the street.
     The Dirty Duck Pub was close and convenient.   It was a bit more posh and pricey than most of its competition, but well worth it. The food was presented beautifully and it was nice to order a grilled tuna steak and have the waiter take it in stride, even complimenting you on your choice. (Gustatory tradition generally requires that tuna steak be seared but otherwise served raw.) This pub was one of the nicest eating experiences of the trip, a pleasant prelude to the fine theater experience that followed.
     The Swan theater is a fairly new, wonderfully atmospheric theater designed to accurately reflect Elizabethan tradition. A stage level audience and two galleries above surround the actors on three sides. The arrangement works very well.
     The costuming for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Edward III was mostly traditional except for a refugee scene in which the evicted villagers were dressed much like European refugees of the twentieth century. The acting, to my untrained eye, seem good, much of the more dramatic and emotional lines springing convincingly from deep within the actors, with David Rintoul playing a powerful Edward and Jamie Glover portraying a very believable Black Prince.
Edward III was published anonymously about 1593 and has become generally accepted as being written by William Shakespeare. Indeed, the play contains one line identical to one in Shakespeare's Sonnet No. 94, written about 1590: "Lillies that fester, smell far worse than weeds."
     Perhaps one reason for Shakespeare's reticence to claim responsibility for authorship may have to do with the fact that the play's real villains are not the French, but the Scots, who appear boastful, cowardly, and lacking in all sense of honor. In light of such potential offense in the touchy arena of English-Scottish politics and sensitivities, the Bard may have chosen to write this one without claim.
    At any rate, the production was superb and The Swan Theater was a delightful way to end a fine day.