My little review of the Annual Summer Meet-up 2008

[kaliha]

Before I start, there are no pictures of David Tennant here. My camera is made of fail and decided not to work for the majority of the day. But I think you all know what he looks like (very tall, very thin, sentient hair). However, lots of our group were less failworthy and got loads of brilliant pictures.

Thursday
On Thursday I had the pleasure of chicklet73 coming to stay after her flight got in at 7am (1am her time). It was quite easy to spot her at the station as she was taking a picture of a massive University of Wolverhampton poster which featured a TARDIS prominently on it. I lol'd.

After being suitably caffeinated and having had a bit of a jet-lagged nap we went out the visit the Ironbridge World Heritage site as it's fairly close to where I live and the nicest place in a 60 mile radius of my house. We had a fun afternoon traipsing around the Ironbridge, Jackfield, the Incline Plane, the house in Coalport that's fallen back into the side of the Gorge and visited the Boat. That evening she was introduced to the cream of British TV with Top Gear, Mock the Week and QI because everyone should get the chance to watch James May race a Austin Princess full of water around the Top Gear track.

Bilbo is quite in love with chicklet73 because she brought him toys and salmon-y treats. He was in kitty heaven. (And I think he misses you a tiny bit. He was looking for you on Monday and seemed very put out that I didn't bring you home with me).

Friday

Friday morning with treked out to Brum and with an hour to kill popped into Forbidden Planet, introduced chicklet73 to the Floozy in the Jacuzzi and headed down to Moor Street to wait for the others. Met up with neth_dugan andkestrel_h and had a good old chat sitting in the sun (the sun! it's such a rare thing I've pretty much forgotten what it looks like). We waited for steviesun to meet us, but with her amazing ninja skills she managed to get past us and onto the train with then left without us much to the amusement of everyone we were meeting down in Stratford. (There were a fair smattering of mocking texts). Met up with abby_i who'd been horribly delayed and spent an hour on the platform waiting for the next train chatting and watching the bastard car clampers (who have been featured on Central News in the last week) tow away a car. I also pointed out the sights of Birmingham, including the Adult Cinema which was next door (Oh Birmingham, don't you go changing your grot).

Finally we were on our way to Stratford and while the others napped on what was possibly the nosiest train in the history of Central Trains, chicklet73 attempted to take pictures of the countryside but was continually thwarted by trees getting in the way.

We got to Stratford and was met by steviesun, nogbad, flipbfc, taliah_rose, dune_drd and paleologa. It transpired that 11nine73 and morbid_sparks were also on the same train as us but in a different carriage. We then headed off to our various B&Bs and I had the challenge of trying to find somewhere that would take 25 of us for tea.

Our B&B was absolutely lovely, the rooms were massive, (although our bathroom was about the same floorspace as a bath), the beds were comfy and it was literally spitting distance from both the train station and the town centre. Well done doylefan22 for finding it in the first place.


Tea and coffee making facilities are very important. Just ask Bill Bailey. I think he'd have rated our room rather highly.

Thanks to the lovely B&B owners I managed to find somewhere that could seat 22 of us, a little chain Italian Restaurant. So I texted everyone to let them know (much to steviesun's horror as she was in the room next door :))

I managed to get us lost on the way into town thanks to my rubbish sense of direction (I blame all the rain we've been having, I've got rust on my internal sensors). The restaurant gave us a whole wall to ourselves upstairs so that our squee wouldn't disturb the other diners.


Our first group of merry adventurers:
chicklet_73, kestrel_h, dune_drd, nacbrie, ginger_not_rude, taliah_rose, sugarsicons and paleologa, plus some Pimm's.

Our American friends were very much taken by the Pimm's (and why on earth wouldn't they be, it's the taste of summer in a glass).


then we had neth_dugan, steviesun (plus friends), doylefan22, abby_i, flipbfc, nogbad and morbid_sparks.


and finally firefaery2 and friend, Mr sal101010, sal101010 and 11nine73 who was engrossed in a book on beading.

Did you notice how every table had at least one jug of Pimm's on it? I think we ended up having seven jugs between us. My table had three! We are such lushes.


This is our prediction on how the Tenth Doctor is going to cop it: impaled on a giant's fork. Poor Ten, it's not a fun way to go. (In a Christmas Special themed on Jack and the Beanstalk obviously).

As it was getting rather busy we decamped down to the river to find the Dirty Duck (as that was where we'd be meeting up again tomorrow), find the theatre (obviously very important) and scope out the stage door. We left half our group there buying up the entire gift shop and headed off down to the church where Shakespeare is buried to find out when it opened and how much it would cost to visit the grave (8.40-4.30 and £1.50). The church gets bonus bonus points for having the moon rise spookily behind it.


Ooh, spooky!

Unfortunately there was no autographs being done that night, but chicklet73 and paleologa got chatting to a couple of locals. The rest of us headed off to the Dirty Duck and took over a corner of the beer garden. nightbeast was recognised as "that girl off the internet who met David Tennant in costume" there was a lot of discussion about Doctor Who, Hamlet and the probability of David Tennant appearing out of the trellis which formed part of the floo system between the theatre and the pub.

A straw poll also revealed that none of the attendees would kick David Tennant out of bed for eating crackers in bed. It was nice just to sit down and relax after all the rushing around of the day. We then went back to the Stage Door to meeting chicket73 and paleologa and get the disappointing news about the autographs, which didn't stop the Stage Door getting absolutely mobbed by pretty much half the audience once the play finished.

Afterwards some of the group headed back to their B&Bs and some of us went back to the Duck. doylefan22, kestrel_h, abby_i and myself headed out to the beer garden and snagged a table. Unfortunately no one joined us because the staff locked the beer garden doors trapping us outside, although we didn't realise it for ages. Fail.

Later on doylefan22 and myself walked kestrel_h back to her B&B before going back to ours. It was absolutely miles away. However we did get to see lots of bunnies. And bunnies make everything better (unless you're an ex-Vengeance demon).

Saturday

A Ye Olde Christmas Decoration shop (which we lost abby_i and sarah_120 in for a bit.)


They randomly had a section fun of fairy stuff too, including a 3ft high hedgehog. I'm glad my little hedgehog isn't that big, he'd never fit under my shed for a start.


Shakespeare's gaff. He lived in a very nice house. Just a shame about the horrible 1960s monstrosity next door (the museum attached to the house)


That's part of the giftshop, how nice is that? Blimey


Outside the giftshop having spent lots of money on Shakespeare inspired giftery. I got a couple of really cute Shakespeare themed cat cartoon cards by Jill Latter (Now is our winter of discontent (with an earwinging Ginger cat like Bilbo and Hubble Bubble Toil & Trouble (which features a Bilbo-y cat and a Small-faced Kitten)


chicklet73 taking a picture of the Tenth Doctor outside the Falstaff experience. (He's just out of shot due to my rubbish photography skills).

We decided to come back later and do the Falstaff Experience's Ghost Tour because it sounded like a right laugh. And I do love a ghost ghost tour.


I like taking random photos






Big Ted and Little Ted [/Playschool reference]. I was much taken by his doublet.


Our meet-up spot pre-play in order to regroup and give everyone their tickets, which I'd amazingly not lost in the 11 months I've had them.


And then the sun came out. BRILLIANT. But the sun brought with it a mass of wasps which were much less fun. One of which then had the cheek to try to drown in my drink until dune_drd saved it.


The photographer gets photographed.


The swan was unimpressed by us.


My panoramic picture is pastede on yay! But came out quite well. And with minimal photoshoppage too.


Our numbers are bolstered by the arrival of nightbeast, todd_loves_mc (who were both sporting ace Hamlet themed t-shirts) and loopyorangelady.

The sun was shining, everyone was excited about the oncoming play and shockingly there wasn't a Pimm's in sight (forshame!)


sugarsicons, conjunkie, Mel and Piper

The Main Event
Then with the clock ticking around to 1pm we headed off to the Courtyard Theatre. As we were standing outside a horse and carriage with a blushing bride drove past. We were all watching that and not really paying attention to our surroundings when sal101010 suddenly goes "Is that Russell T Davies?" And you know what? it actually was. The braver members of our group did go up to say hello to him and you know what he was so nice. He was really tolerant of a bunch of random wimmin going up to him and saying hello and let everyone have their photos taken with him. (sugarsicons and myself were much too wussy to by ourselves so we went together. I'm not sure who took our photo though? Anyone?)

Russell T Davies is easily as tall as His Lordship, and bless him, he was practically kneeling to get into shot with us shortarses :) Also lurking in the crowd was Julie Gardner, relieved that no one had noticed her. A couple of people did go over to tell her how awesome she was though.

We went to take our seats (Row B in the stalls, thnkuvrymuch). steviesun a couple of rows behind us asked where we had got too. I went "I just met Russell T Davies", in quite a loud voice causing a :O from steviesun followed by a D: from me as I realised that he was sitting the row behind me. *facepalms* Yes, I had better seats than RTD. Fancy.

But the plays the thing, and what a play it was.

As mentioned in about a thousand other reviews the stage was set as a thrust with the audience on three sides. I was sat right against the stage and nearly got trodden on a couple of times by the cast coming on and off the stage.

I really liked the set, especially the mirrored back wall which allowed you to see around the minimal props when they got on the stage.

David Tennant. Oh, well. He was very, very good. And also very tall and even thinner than he looks on m'telleh. He did spend a lot of his first couple of scenes with his back towards us showing us his arse in a very distracting manner. To signify Hamlet's 'madness' Tennant went around Elsinore barefoot (and it wasn't warm in the theatre). There were a fair few wry smiles when it was revealed that one of his costumes was a bright red t-shirt with the print of a very muscley chest on it. Although then people got distracted when Tennant started reaching up into the air revealing tantalising glimpses of his tummy. Whenever he was on stage everyone's eyes were glued to him (apart from the one bloke on the front row opposite us who was fast asleep, I think Tennant noticed too as he did some noisy "I'm mad, me" business right by him. The bloke didn't even stir). There were only a couple of moments where David went a bit Doctor-ish (and even then it was only in the delivery of some words, I think it's a habit of his rather than something he does specifically as the Doctor though). Oh and I have it on good authority (because I saw it with my own eyes) that Mr Tennant was wearing red pants. The boy needs a belt. Oh and there was pelvic thrusting (the sight of which very nearly made chicklet73 expire from held in squee).

Sentient!Hair watch: It started off very neat and swept back with a parting, got a little bit more ruffled, and a little more and ended up massive by the interval. Really his hair deserved a credit all of it's very own.

Patrick Stewart: looks strange in a wig and a beard. Very nearly said 'make it so' which caused muffled lols from doylefan22 and myself. He was really good. He played Claudius as a Politician and gave him a sense of empathy which was completely missing in other productions of the play I've seen.

Oliver Davies as Polonius was a joy, he really got down Polonius's distracted rambling and had a lot of the funniest bits.

Quick summary of my highlights:

• The opening scene on the battlements was done in almost total darkness with just Barnardo and Francisco holding torches which they shone on the very reflective floor and used to light each other, Horatio and the Ghost. It was really effectively done and Patrick Stewart wandering onto the stage was super spooky.


• The relationship between Horatio and Hamlet was really nicely played. The two of them had a lot of chemistry and you could really believe that Horatio would do anything for his friend.


• Rosencratz and Guildenstern reminded me of Ant and Dec.


• The first scene with Laertes and Ophelia where Laertes was trying to explain that boys are bad mmmmkay.


• David Tennant nearly concussing someone with a footstool. Lucky they had the reactions of a ninja on speed and managed to catch it before it broke their nose.


• The play. Mainly for the use of the word 'boobies' and the massive lanterns and the use of flying wires.


• David Tennant nearly snapping his back launching himself at the steps leading up to the thrones.


• Crowns worn at jaunty angles.


• It was actually quite funny. There was a couple of moments where Patrick Stewart had to turn away from his crazy step-son and try not to laugh.


• Hot recorder action. Not well played admittedly but Hamlet is a bit mad.


• Polonius's Death, the shattering of the mirrored backdrop (really really cleverly done) and Tennant struggling a bit to drag his body off the stage


• The scene between Hamlet and Gertrude, with Hamlet standing on the bed, towering over his mother (and us as we were on that side of the stage).


• David Tennant gaffer taped to a computer chair and gagged with the same. (One of our group apparently muttered out loud at that point "I have a great idea for a fic") And using his puny body weight to try and get off the stage (For England!)


• Ophelia's descent into madness was quite well done (she also ended up barefoot) and the scene were she gives out the wild flowers she picked was quite haunting.


• The scene with the undertaker, the Alas poor Yorick bit and Hamlet's grief at discovering Ophelia's death


• Hot fencing action. I do love a good sword fight. It was a little bit short mind.


• I think everyone was a little bit teary at the "good night, sweet prince" part.

I think there were a couple of strange directorial choices and some of the cuts were noticeable (but the play was already running about about 3 and a half hours so they were definitely needed).

I really enjoyed it though. And three and a half hours went by in an absolute flash. I'd love to go and see it again, but the tickets are all sold out (unsurprisingly) so there's only the hope that they release it on DVD. Go forth, brave people and email the RSC saying that you'd love to buy a DVD of the play.

Lots of standing ovations at the end. Hoorah for everyone.

chicklet73 made a dash for the stage door as soon as the play finished. The rest of us on that side of the theatre got trapped in the crowd so it took about five minutes to get round. By the time we got there there was at least 150-200 people waiting. There was no point fighting our way down the front so we waited up the back or on the chairs round the front for the lucky few who were anywhere near the front. David Tennant was already changed and out signing a smattering of autographs. When he went to go back in the stage door wouldn't open much to everyone's amusement (Photo by chicklet73, go and read her review of squee here). A few of the other cast members also came out to sign autographs/take photos of the crowd.) doylefan22 and abby_i took some really good pictures which I hope they'll be posting soon.

The others extricated ourselves from the crowd and we met up with everyone out the front of the theatre (to go and buy everything in the RSC shop) where it started to rain (boo!) so most of us headed off rather quickly to the local Whetherspoon's for a bite to eat and a chat. Our American friends headed off to Thorntons to buy lovely lovely chocolate and a few others headed off back to the B&Bs for the evening. The rest of us critqued Last Choir Standing and waited for the ghost tour.

It's a slightly different ghost tour to others I've been on in that it takes place in the almost-pitch dark inside the museum. It was very very dark. Within about two minutes of the tour starting one of our group had to leave because they felt a cold hand under their shirt. They were standing about an inch away from the wall at the time. They decamped to the Dirty Duck (for spirits of a all the more pleasant kind). Interestingly the building was riddled with priest holes (used to hide Catholics) and one of the former owners of the building was charged with hiding Catholics and buried in a priest hole bent double, still alive so that his soul wouldn't go to heaven :(

The next story was about a ghost that walks down the stairs and the fact some people find the bottom step spongy (because they were feeling a dead body on the bottom of the stairs). We also learnt the difference between a ghost (a repeating image that is ingrained into a building, you can see it but you can't change it or interact with it and it just repeats) and a spirit (you talk to them, they do different stuff, they possess Derek Acorah etc etc)

There was a room where it felt like the floor was moving, the tour guide explained that the room was restored with reclaimed timbers from a ship, we were told that black magic is bad, mmmkay.

We also got bonus Most Haunted wank. Brilliant. The guide asked if anyone watched Moat Haunted, I was the only person to say yes (to my shame). The guide said that before he met Derek Acorah he thought he was a complete conman. But they came do do a Most Haunted Live Derek got possessed, thew up all over one of the rooms (to the Tour Guide's disgust as he had to clean it up) and he threw up outside too before going back to the hotel and trying to kill poor Karl. The guide was saying that Derek knew stuff about the house that isn't covered in the guides and was grudgingly impressed by him. He also added that Derek was sacked from MH because Yvette Fielding was jealous that Derek was getting all the popularity and then tried to discredit him. Blimey.

The tour was really interesting. it was just a shame that you couldn't see anything of the museum because it was just so dark. There were lots of spooky shadows and cold spots and I got real pins and needles in one room, but no one got possessed or molested by a poltergeist, other than right at the start. (I found the news story he was on about though about the journalist and his daughter)

Once we were done it was back off to the the Duck for some warming spirits and a discussion on the way on whether or not we believed in ghosts.










Oh you two. Why? Oh Why? (Jack's going to have very sore shoulders if he does that for too long)

The Tenth Doctor loves Pimm's!

Oh and there are no trains out of Stratford after 7.30 in the evening so abby_i ended up stranded in Stratford and had to spend the night in the spare bed in our room. Poor lass.


Next morning I headed off to the V festival and another post about that will be coming later.

And that was pretty much the weekend in a (very long) nutshell.

Comments

[lanaya1980.livejournal.com]

I am exceedingly, exceedingly jealous. But I'm glad that it was good. :)

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

I would have cried if Hamlet had of been played by an understudy. David Tennant was bloody good. Write the the RSC and demand they make a DVD then you can watch him from the comfort of your own home.

[kharma2815.livejournal.com]

So jealous that I wasn't ther but glad you all had a good time

[cheesygirl.livejournal.com]

What fun! I hope I can meet up with the LJ peeps who are going to be in Stratford when I am. We need to share Pimms and squee too! :D

Ooooh, I might look into that ghost tour. I like the creepy stuff.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

Post in doctorwho_meets and see if you can get a gathering of people together. And yes, Pimm's should be the official drink of LJ-ers on Tour in Stratford.

[cheesygirl.livejournal.com]

I just a few moments ago had my first sip of Pimms! I went to the liquor store looking for Herbsaint (they didn't have it) but they did have one bottle of Pimms! OMG it's gooooooooood!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful time! I can't wait for the panto meetup.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

It's going to be good. Robin Hood looks like it is going to be complete crack (and that's not even going into John Barrowman in tights)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine how the robot is going to get into this. But finding out is going to be a blast!

Any good ideas on how to get from London to town?

[sal101010.livejournal.com]

I discovered two things during the play: there aren't subtitles in live theatre and although gallery tickets are gloriously cheap, the view of heads is a lot less fun than the view of DT's undies...

And I haven't uploaded my wonky!crown!Hamlet icon yet. Boo. That's better!

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

I've seen a picture of him from the bit when he's sat on the throne after the play puling a face going "I'm mad, me" I really want to find an electronic version and turn it into an icon.

It's no wonder I couldn't spot you in the audience if you were all the way up there.

[taperoo2k.livejournal.com]

Cool. I might bring my DSLR with me to the panto.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

There's not as many nice things to take photos of in Birmingham as there is in Stratford mind.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

*is jealous liek whoa* thanks for sharing all this! It's cool stuff. And great pictures!:D

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

Run, not walk, to my latest post which is full of badly taken Muse live at the V festival pictures.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

As I said to dune_drd last night, I am vastly enjoying all the Stratford reports because they are nearly as good as the real thing (she asked me to come along, but I couldn't, alas...). The ghost tour in particular sounds like huge fun -- apart from the play itself, of course.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

The ghost tour was good fun (but not if you ask nogbad but Hamlet was definitely a highlight.

[glitteraddict89.livejournal.com]

Sounds EPIC! I'm so so jealous of you all.

David Tennant gaffer taped to a computer chair and gagged with the same. Bwahaha. Oh dirty mind, hush.

And of course, you wouldn't be LOOKING at DT's red pants would you? For shame!

RTD... FTW! Gah! Lucky things!!

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

David Tennant tied to a chair was my most favourite shallow bit (even beating the bit where he stretched up showing off his treasure trail to all and sundry like the slutboi he is).

I no have photographic proof that I was manhandled by RTD. After meeting him I feel a tiny bit bad for slagging off a lot of his authorial choices in DW over the last few years because he was so nice to everyone.

[chicklet73.livejournal.com]

Oh my GOD. I am grinning from ear to ear...reading this was like being right back there, in the midst of things!

And yes, I nearly did expire from held-in squee.

Tell Bilbo his affection is returned in spades and I'll bring more goodies when I come back over in October.

I also loved your listing of all those wonderful moments in "Hamlet". I know I go on and on about Tennant and his underpants and his Abundance of Awesome, but I really did love the entire thing...Polonius...I haven't laughed that hard at any play in ages.

Just...the whole weekend was such a wonderful experience (save for about twenty minutes of crushing disappointment Friday night), I'd do it all over again in a minute.

Thank you SO much for organizing it!

Oh, and I am absolutely going to make those spinach and feta tarts for the next party I attend...

*big grateful hug*

p.s. YAY PIMM'S

[chicklet73.livejournal.com]

p.s. SO MUCH LOVE for "Top Gear"

[abby-i.livejournal.com]

Heya! Just found this, now that I'm all computered back again. Great report of the events that weekend, and far better than I'll be able to do. It was so long ago I'm forgotten half of it!

Could I ask a favour of you? would it be possible to e-mail me the full sized photos that I'm in? I think I've got a few of you (just need to find the memory card) so will be happy to send on any I have of you once I get them sorted.

[abby-i.livejournal.com]

Heh, just wondered if you'd be able to let me know regarding this?

Also, is it okay if I link to this post when I make mine? I can hardly remember what happened and this report is excellent!

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

Crap. Sorry I didn't get the original comment. :(

Yes, you can link and I'll email you the photos now.

[abby-i.livejournal.com]

No worries, I figured that was probably the case, LJ being what it is at times!

Ta muchly. :)