Coriolanus

I started writing this post a few days ago...Sunday, 2 March 01h00, to be exact. Why was I up at this unGodly hour?
Because I was so wired after experiencing one of the best evenings of my life...one I was waiting three months to experience.

After a morning tutoring session with my niece, I showered, put on a pretty dress, my favourite perfume and heels, and did my make-up. And when we got to the cinema, I sat, through forty minutes of repetitive trailers, waiting for it to start.
It didn't disappoint.

I have so much to say but no words can do justice to the brilliant performance I had the privilege to watch.
Let me start by saying a big congratulations to the entire Donmar team. I am so upset that I don't live in London...I would have been your best patron.

I have never been to the theatre to watch a Shakespearean play. In fact, the last time I was at the theatre was probably at primary school, so I was expecting some stage dressing. To have the lights shine on a naked stage took me a bit by surprise but it actually worked well, forcing you to focus entirely on the drama as it unfolds on the stage. You, as an audience member, were not distracted by props or garish costumes  and made the performance on stage so much more powerful.


Before I get to my shallower musings, I need to applaud the actors for an AMAZING job. I went out and bought Coriolanus to read in preparation for the play. I am usually a fast reader but it took me a few weeks to get through it...I read it slowly, so that I could understand it to the best of my ability.
But, Shakespeare wrote plays, and I only fully appreciated Coriolanus after watching it. I certainly did not pick up humour or sarcasm when I read it, and I don't recall laughing for any scene. But I laughed like an idiot in the cinema (the people probably thought I was on crack or something) for the droll wit of Menenius, in particular, and even of Virgilia and Marcius.

All the actors were brilliant, but the performances that stood out for me were those of Mark Gatiss (kept me in stitches in almost every scene he was in), Rochenda Sandall (sensational, playing a million different characters - and for such a small lady, huge stage presence) and, of course, Tom Hiddleston.
  

What can I say?
Firstly (and here I am going to be frivolous, and I apologise in advance if it makes you a little uncomfortable), you are one sexy man. Even when you are scowling. You need to throw away every loose-fitting pair of trousers you own and only wear slim cut pants.
 

 Initially, I was struggling to focus on more than just your posterior and biceps (when did that happen???) and I was really grateful that the lady at the refreshments counter put extra ice in my drink (I needed it).

But your performance took me on a such a ride...and my emotions were scattered all over the place by the end of it.I hated your arrogance and admired your courage through the first Act; I felt awkward and uncomfortable with the intimate looks at Birgitte Sorenson in all of your scenes with her, yet I could not look away; I wanted to protect you from your own family and friends who wanted to change you;

Birgitte and Tom

my heart broke when you parted from your family, broke again when you humbled yourself to Hadley Fraser and shattered when I saw you hang at the end.

I was exhausted...yet strangely energized when I left the theatre.
Coriolanus was well worth the three month wait and R120 I paid for my ticket.

On-screen romance

I am a sucker for on-screen romance.
For me, a good actor will make me believe that the fake chemistry on screen is absolutely real.

The following are some of my absolute favourite on-screen romantic scenes...

1. Stefan and Elena's first kiss on Vampire diaries. I stopped watching this series in the middle of season two because the story lines just stopped making sense and Elena works on my nerves. But Stefan is one of my absolute favourite fictitious characters...and let's not forget that he is smoking hot (how people can like Ian Somerhalder over Paul Wesley is beyond me).
And this scene...wow. Not smutty or disgusting.
Just...absolutely romantic.


2. Jesse and Lestat in Queen of the Damned. Now, yes, this movie will never even be considered for an Oscar. The story line was made a bit weird, and there was A LOT of bad acting. But I liked it. Because, again, I liked the chemistry between Jesse and Lestat...even though that wasn't explored a lot in this movie. My favourite scenes between them are three:

Meeting for the first time in an alley outside the Admiral's Arms

Flying through Los Angeles

When Lestat bites into Jesse at the end, she lets out this sigh...like its pleasurable and not painful.

3. Tom Hiddleston and Melanie Thierry as Henry and Kate in The Hollow Crown's Henry V. This has become one of my favourite plays and Act 5 Scene 2 has become my favourite romantic scene. What starts off as a political alliance morphs into the beginning of a beautiful relationship, and Henry, although he does not know how to 'mince it in love' woos her with his honesty. I absolutely love the fact that he takes his crown off before he kisses her.

Tom, this made me fall in love with you...

Sonnet 57

Being your slave, what should I do but tend 
Upon the hours and times of your desire? 
I have no precious time at all to spend, 
Nor services to do, till you require. 
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour 
When you have bid your servant once adieu; 
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought 
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, 
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are how happy you make those.
   So true a fool is love that in your will,
   Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill. 

Twitter friends

Twitter is without a doubt my favourite social medium. At a tense moment in my day, I can just open the Twitter app on my Blackberry and I am guaranteed to read something amusing by one of my twuddies (Twitter buddies for those who didn't catch that).

In my previous post I attributed my reintroduction to Shakespeare to my dream guy, Tom Hiddleston.
Today, I wish to pay tribute to the Twitter friend who has made Shakespeare fun!

So, @HollowCrownFans, I thank thee, from the bottom of my heart. 

My road back to Shakespeare

As a high school student, I didn't really like studying the literature they made us read. I later discovered that it was due to the fact that they chose mostly tragedies - what teenager wants to read about jealousy, death and destruction? I also had a really boring English teacher for most of my high school career.
Thankfully, we were given a new teacher in my Matric year and she made us fall in love with reading.

My love affair with books gradually grew over the last fifteen years. I do not profess to be a connoisseur of books - my tastes could be considered shallow by many. I hate books that are depressing, I don't need to read something that requires in depth analysis. Books are my escape from some of the harsher realities of life. As long as the language and plot are beautiful and I can fall in love with some character (though he/she may be fictional) or travel to beautiful places in my head, I am happy. Give me a romance (period or contemporary), fantasy or even science fiction (to a degree), and I am a happy camper.

Despite my generally fluffy taste in reading material, I am very fond of certain classic authors - Jane Austen and William Shakespeare being my two favourites. Austen satisfies my eternal romantic - the girl ALWAYS gets the right guy for her and the endings are always happy for her heroines. Shakespeare I like for his superior use of the English language.

I have discovered that one understands a Shakespearean play best when it's being performed.
During Matric, a group of actors came to enact all of the literature we were studying that year...it was the first time I had ever had a good understanding of my school literature and it was also the year I got my best English mark. Although I did not pursue English at tertiary level, I continued to read (and watch) Shakespeare when I could.

My reintroduction to Shakespeare came last year, when I discovered that Tom Hiddleston's acting CV is littered with Bard roles. I was curious, and managed to get my hands on the Hollow Crown series, which is the screen version of one of Shakespeare's historical tetralogies - Richard II, Henry IV-Part 1, Henry IV-Part 2 and Henry V.
Yes, Tom is a fox, and I get warm just thinking of him or looking at pictures of him. Does not take an iota away from the fact that the man is a bloody brilliant actor. I really enjoyed the series, but due to restrictions, many times film adaptations have to trim a lot of the actual literature and this prompted me to start investing in the books.
Thus far, I've managed to read Coriolanus...a play I had never heard of but thought I'd read in preparation to the NTLive screening of the Donmar production (in which Mr Hotness plays the lead character). To my surprise, despite it being a tragedy, I really enjoyed it (and bear in mind that I have not seen the play yet).

So, fandom led me back to Shakespeare.
I watched Much Ado About Nothing because I wanted to see Keanu Reeves and Robert Sean Leonard.
I watched Hamlet because I wanted to see Ethan Hawke and I liked Julia Stiles.
I watched A Midsummer Night's Dream because I am a Michelle Pfeiffer fan.

Is it such a travesty? No. And if brilliant actors like Kenneth Branagh, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, etc. attract people to the genre, we should be happy that there are those few, those band of brothers who keeps the Bard alive in contemporary times.

Re-discovering my adolescence

My natural personality is very exuberant...okay, let's be honest. I'm loud. I like to laugh. I like to have fun (within reason of course). I am very light-hearted and don't take things too seriously. I tend to say things as I think them (without editing before I utter) and I don't sugar-coat.
When I was younger, I was often labeled as being tactless and my natural tendencies often landed me in some sort of trouble.

For the longest time now, I've been trying very hard to be grown up and responsible. And while I am relieved to have abandoned some of my juvenile qualities, I think I squashed my personality in the process and became this really boring, heavy person. It's amazing how whatever is inside you translates outwardly and my somber head space has shown in my behaviour, the way that I dress, hobbies' etc.

For the last few months, however, I've been rediscovering my adolescent self. Before you freak out, no, not the obnoxious one whom everyone was scared of... Instead, I have merged the lightness of my younger self with the wisdom and experience (hopefully) of my present self.
Someone commented the other day on how happy they are to see me wearing lighter clothing, wearing make-up, wearing a smile!
And I have to say, despite all of the adversity I've had to face the last twelve months, I am being steered towards a happier head space.

Dialogue and Disagreement

One of the hot topics at the moment in South Africa is the energy crisis we are facing. Last year, I had the opportunity to attend a conference hosted by SAWomEng and the focus was on whether we should resort to hydraulic fracturing (or ‘fracking’ as it commonly referred to) as a means to solve our energy crisis.

For those who do not know, South Africa relies mainly on coal for its energy needs. However, coal is a non-renewable resource and our reserves are depleting at an alarming rate, and so we have to explore other energy sources. In the Karoo, there is a large region with a substantial reserve of shale gas, which is a potential energy source, and this resource has to be extracted by the process of fracking.

Simply put, shafts are dug into the earth and a mixture of water, sand and chemicals are horizontally pumped at a high pressure, thereby fracturing the rocks to release the gas.

I had heard the term ‘fracking’ before, but did not know what it was, what it was used for and its consequences. As a non-science person, it was extremely educational for me to learn about it and to watch people debate about the pros and cons of us exploring this option.

I also had the privilege of meeting some really interesting people – one in particular, Johnathan Deal, an environmental crusader of sorts who heads up Treasure the Karoo Action Group. TKAG is committed to ensuring that the shale-rich area of the Karoo is protected against fracking and also for South Africa to more aggressively explore renewable energy sources.

I spent a few minutes chatting to him and discovered that he is completely off the Eskom grid, and relies entirely on solar power.

As impressive as I find that, the thing that stuck with me was his comment on how wasteful we have become with regards to energy usage. Is it necessary to switch every light on in your home? Do you have switch the kettle, stove, oven and microwave on at the same time? And I thought to myself – this man has a point. We are frantically looking for alternative sources of energy but no one has attempted to answer this question: What are we doing to become more energy efficient?

The debate between the pro and anti-fracking communities are heating up – and in some cases, people have resorted to some disgusting tactics (here I refer to mud-slinging on Twitter and slanderous blog posts) which brings me to my point:

We are all different, and have different views and opinions. We’re not going to all agree on things. And it’s okay to dialogue and to have disagreements.

It is NOT okay to degrade or personally attack people in the name of your cause. It is NOT okay to equate someone to a dictator because he/she actively promotes his/her opinion (which contradicts yours).

Bad behaviour is NEVER OKAY. 

stress-fractured heart

Something I've realized over the past few days-the people whom you love the most are the ones who have the potential to hurt you the worst...
That's been my life for the last week...I've been around a person who's negativity is so overwhelming that it rendered me unable to eat and has robbed me of sleep. This person has hurt me so badly, I've cried during my prayers...
With friends it is easy...you simply get rid of the ones who take you for granted. Something I've had to do a lot the last few years.
But what do you do when it is someone you cannot rid yourself of? Someone who will be in your life till death takes either of you...?

“After a certain point, a heart with so many stress fractures can never be anything but broken” - Jodi Picoult.

My heart is broken. And some days it feels like I'm bleeding internally...

Good-bye 2013

One thing I will say for the past 12 months - they definitely were not boring.
I've lived more in the last year than I did in the thirty that preceded it...and have experienced many things, felt many emotions, learnt new skills, made new friends.
I've also experienced more heartache. And for those single-minded people reading this, No. It wasn't because of a guy.

I happily lay 2013 to rest (while trying to get some myself).
And hope that 2014 will be a calmer year for me.

Nelson Mandela

This year, I was asked to assist two of my colleagues with their teaching load, and hence ended up teaching Social Science (History and Geography) to a Grade 4 and Grade 5 class.
Having hated both of those subjects at school, my knowledge was pretty limited, but I took it as an opportunity for me to learn (as I would have to research every single chapter I had to teach).

One of the Chapters in Grade 4 History was famous leaders through time, and the two we studied were Ghandi and Nelson Mandela.

Now, I was a baby during the twilight years of Apartheid, and so I was sheltered from the indignities that non-whites had to endure during that vile time. And me being the poor History student that I am, I had to do some homework on Madiba, so that I could dialogue with my students.

As proud as I am for his efforts to affect much needed change in South Africa, I am prouder of two things in particular that I learnt about him during lesson prep: 1. That despite losing his father at an early age and going to live with another family, he still maintained a respectful manner toward all elders... 2. Prison did not stop him from furthering his education - he managed to complete post-graduate studies while he was incarcerated.

What we should take from these two aspects (and from his entire life) is that adversity is never an excuse for you to become a burden or danger to society. You can rise above your circumstance to be an exemplary human being.

Thank you, Tata, for being such an example to us. I hope that all you have striven for will not be laid to rest with you...