King Lear

“When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools…” ~Act IV. Scene vi


There are a lot of annoying things on this semester. Lots of studying, being away from family and friends, the exchange rate is still killing me; there is just a plethora of things to complain about. Being the grumbler that I am, I always vent my frustration. But the pros have outweighed the cons. A perfect example of this was last night.

I went with a group to Stratford, the home of William Shakespeare. Our train arrived in Oxford late and because of poor socialization of public transportation, I missed the connecting train at another stop which was then supposed to take me to Stratford. I sat in the train station finishing up my fun reading, The Wind and the Willows, for about two hours. Upon arriving at Stratford, I had about 15 minutes to get from the train depot to the playhouse where I had tickets to see a performance of King Lear.

Now seeing a Shakespeare production in the playwright’s hometown is one thing, seeing that same production starring Sir Ian McKellen is another. That is correct. I saw King Lear with Sir Ian McKellen (otherwise known as Gandalf or Magneto if you’re a comic book guy) as Lear.

It was my first time seeing a performance of King Lear and I thought it was extraordinary. The play itself was wonderful (actually it is a tragedy and really sad, but still pretty…pretty…pretty cool), but it was made just that much better when you knew that you were watching one of the greatest actors of our time perform it.

I have been blessed with extraordinary opportunities on this trip and last night was one of the greatest.