"When your father returns from the grave a vengeful, thespian, angel of death, it makes you think a bit" -OR- Jim Broadbent is completely stylized

Rachel and I spent a wonderful evening in the National Theatre's Lyttelton last night. Theatre of Blood, starred Jim Broadbent as Lionheart. It was a campy horror show, based on a 1970's Vincent Price film, focused around an actor's revenge on theatre critics. Lionheart invited a bunch of critics to a "derelict" theatre in London and proceeded to kill them off, one by one; each murder fashioned after a different Shakespeare play. While this at first sounds gruesome, and, I guess it was, it was mostly funny. Each murder sent the audience into peals of laughter because of the absolute ridiculousness of them. The really amazing thing was how authentic the murders looked; stage illusion at its finest. One critic was revealed suspended in mid-air, impaled on a tripod of spears. Another was electrocuted to death in a salon hair dryer. A third was drowned in a barrel and then enclosed and rolled off. In Lionheart's version of Merchant of Venice, Shylock takes the pound of flesh. In full view of the audience, Broadbent climbed on top of another man and went to work slicing him up, cracking his ribs with a crowbar and removing his heart. It was really cool to see a show where I didn't know how the technical magic was achieved. Towards the end, however, the fun subsided and we were subjected to a lecture on how commercialized theatre has ruined the rawness of the art form. It was a desperate attempt at irony and didn't work. It was, I assume, exactly what the film would've done and exactly what any other work of this genre would've done so, I can't really fault them for being true, albeit annoying.

Sunday was a very full day. After sleeping off Saturday's late night, Rachel, Aaliyah and I went to Trafalgar Square for the Rathayatra festival. Sri Jagannatha Ratha Yatra is an annual festival of the Hare Krishna, celebrating the one day a year when Lord Jagannatha, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, comes outside to be among his people. What this translates to is a big parade with three giant, colorful floats. The square was packed with all sorts of people. The weather was unbelievable and all the time the sounds of the Hare Krishna chant were in the background. The three of us had a great time observing a different culture and just kinda relaxing. After wandering the square for a while, we pulled off our shoes, rolled up our pants and waded through the fountain, enjoying the sun and water and people.

After the Rathayatra festival, we wandered to Leicester Square with the intention of getting some theatre tickets at TKTS. It was not to be though, as to our surprise we walked right into the British premiere of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The square was in full drag as Wonkaland and people thronged everywhere. We calmly observed until Johnny Depp's car pulled up. Rachel had been calm until now but, couldn't restrain herself from shouting "Oh my God!" repeatedly and scrambling to get a pic. Of course Aaliyah and I also tried to take pictures but not with nearly the fervor of Roko.

Anyway, the fun subsided and we retired to my apartment for a relaxed evening of spaghetti and wine on my balcony. It's a semi-charmed life we're leading.