The Ham Nomads

10 Oct 2014. <GB-ENG> Stratford-upon-Avon, Warw —

Woke up to find the carpark nearly deserted — all the Mop Fair vehicles had disappeared into the town (leaving only the caravan village in the back of the lot).

Warren went into Macca's to catch up on the Blog, while Suzie sat in the van catching up on her journal. Warren came back after an hour or so, and we went into town. Oh, by the way, before he came back, he went into the Royal Shakespeare Theatre to see if there were any tickets available for the other play they are performing at the moment — Love's Labour's Lost — there were, so we're going tonight!

Wandered Stratford again. The streets are filled with what could only be called 'Sideshow Alley', but they won't get under way until after about 3pm. The shops are all open (although a couple of ice-cream-type places have closed up for the duration, not wanting to get into competition with the concessions in the fair).

We revisited a couple of the Shakespeare sites — Hall's Croft and Holy Trinity Church, and wandered a little more, before going back to the van to get ready for the theatre. When we got back into town (sans camera, unfortunately), the fair was rocking! Kids everywhere. The noise was excruciating — we don't know if the entire population is going deaf, or what! Noticed quite a heavy rain shower approaching (did we tell you, it's been blue skies and beautiful all day?), so we decided to go back to the Hole in the Wall for another pizza dinner. While we were in there, the heavens cut loose! But we had a pleasant dinner, being entertained by a one-year-old being very active and totally cute in the corner of the pub.

The rain stopped, just as we finished our meal, so we wandered the fair a little longer, and then adjourned to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

We were amazed when we realized that the cast is the same as for the other! They perform one or other of the plays every day except Sunday, and on some days perform both! When you think that each play runs for at least 2¼ hours, and that some of the principals are on stage more than half that time (and changing costumes when they're not), this is a marathon effort — but both plays come up as fresh each time.

We told you that Love's Labour's Won; or Much Ado About Nothing is set at Charlecote Park at the end of the First World War. Well, Love's Labour's Lost is set in the same place, just before the onset of the war. This is very clever, as it emphasises certain resonances between the plays. It also gives an extra twist to the ending of Lost, where in the play the women enjoin the men to wait, and go into retreat, for 12 months before returning to them to take up their romances. In the performance, you are aware if the approach of the War, and when the men all come out at the end in military uniform, you know that it will be at least 4 years, if ever, before they get back together with the women.

We notice in the programme that next year (2015) there are to be international live broadcasts into selected theatres of these two plays — Lost on 11 February, and Won on 4 March. If they get a showing in Australia, we can heartily recommend you going along!

After the show, we wandered back — rather quickly, as there was rain in the offing — to the van for the night.

Distance driven — today, nil; to date, 8,473 miles ( 13,636 km )