Visiting Stratford upon Avon and experiencing "The Jew of Malta" and "Love's Sacrifice" at the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre.

For the past two days our study-abroad group had been staying in Stratford-upon-Avon, well known for being the hometown of William Shakespeare. This town is the definition of a stereotypical, quaint British town. The entire town has the atmosphere of an ancient, medieval place, making you feel like you're traveling hundreds of years back in time when you're in it exploring the cute, thatch-roofed buildings. Being as much of a fan of medieval history and fantasy, it was pure heaven for me, and much less hectic than the London streets.

During our stay in Stratford, we were able to see two plays produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company; "The Jew of Malta" and "Love's Sacrifice." Since these plays were produced by one company, or troupe, many of the actors who acted in one play also acted in the other, some with bigger or smaller roles. For this blog, I've been asked to discuss the performance of a female actor and discuss her performance in each play. I've chosen to discuss the actress who played Abigail in "The Jew of Malta" and Bianca in "Love's Sacrifice" whose name is Rhiannon Handy. Interestingly enough, she's actually the understudy for both roles, since the original actress fell ill. I must say, she did an absolutely fantastic job filling in, especially for the character of Abigail. She had a great sense of comedic physicality that truly accentuated the personality of the character, fitting right in with the rest of the cast and their styles of acting. She portrayed the combination of innocence and spunk that embodies Abigail very effectively. However, I wasn't too crazy about her performance of Bianca. I think she played up the innocence of the character a little too much, to the point where she felt like a very static character. I was also able to notice her actor-habits after having seen her in two different roles, and while they aren't detrimental in any way, you do notice it, such as her tendency to make very quick, jerky changes to both her physical movement and facial expression, which fit perfectly well with Abigail, but should've been toned down for Bianca. Overall, she did a fine job, but could've been much better.

Sadly, we had to leave this morning for Pickwick Hall in London, where we will be staying at for the remainder of our trip. On the way, we visited Kenilworth Castle, one of the last remaining castles in the U.K. It definitely satisfied the medieval nerd in me, and it was wondrous knowing that I was standing and looking upon such a historic place, where Elizabeth I once stood. It was an absolutely gorgeous place, and I'm extremely thankful we were able to visit it for a couple of hours before we resumed our journey back to London.