Shakespeare at the Castle

With the reunion of the blogging duo, we can go back and fill in the remainder of Phil and Andy’s time in Oxford, while Deb was in Ireland (Thanks to Andy for posting some blogs by logging on as Deb.)

After the London in a Day tour on Monday, Tuesday was as rainy as it has been here all summer, other than the infamous Blenheim downpour. We managed to make it to the Ashmolean Museum and to find a nearby street where Tolkien lived, but mostly we found shelter from the rain. This made us nervous because we had theatre tickets for that evening—an outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing—and we did not want it to be rescheduled.


The play was at Oxford Castle. We have not written before about the castle, mostly because there is not much to say. It is a small castle, recently restored, but of little historical significance. The play was in its open courtyard. We arrived early and waited (in the coffee shop, of course) as the rain came down in buckets. Finally, they announced that the play would go on, with a brief delay to mop the stage. The rain stopped, or at least slowed to a mist, and about 100 people including us enjoyed a great performance in a fantastic setting. We were in the cheap seats, but still less than 40 feet from the stage and elevated enough to see over the umbrellas in the front row. The play is a comedy which, for Shakespeare, means broad and sometimes bawdy. It had all the elements of classic slapstick, with people hiding in bushes, tripping over things, getting water dumped on them, mangling the language, and so on. (It did include the unintended comedic suspense when an actor was nearly unable to strike a match because of the rain.) We were waiting for Moe, Larry and Curly to make an appearance. Great performance, great setting, and the rain subsided long enough to let us enjoy it.

With nicer weather on Wednesday, we visited the Botanical Gardens and squeezed in visits to several more colleges.

Andy wearing his coffee t-shirt standing
next to the coffee tree at the Botanical Garden
(double-click picture to read caption on his shirt)

We also had a classic pub evening, when we went for a pint at “our local”, a pub called the Fir Tree at the end of our road. (Contrary to what you may think, we don’t go to the pub that often.) The Fir Tree was celebrating the opening of a new and nice outdoor patio, and in the course of events, we ended up in a spirited discussion of classic rock music (and other things) with some other patrons. This discussion included the profound insight that, “ah, there will always be nutters”. (A “nutter” is what we would call a nut.) Andy left on Thursday, having gotten the full Oxford experience and a new catchphrase.
--Philip