London! It was my first time in the UK and Amy's too; we spent a couple days here. We stayed in Shoreditch, which seemed cool before we arrived and felt like it was swarming with tech people once we were there. I did not care for that, though I did find points north quite lovely. I bought a 7" single of "I'm a Cuckoo" at a used record shop in Hackney, and now I ought to buy a record player so I can listen to it.
We saw theater every night of our London stay:
The Oresteia, a modern adaptation by Simon Stone, had a lot of very impressive performances and an excellent fish bowl-like rotating set but was too long. I understand you're adapting a trilogy; you don't not need to make it three acts in three hours.
My Neighbor Totoro was conversely a perfect adaptation. Every choice, every moment felt like exactly what a staged version of that film should be, like there were zero compromises in adjusting from screen to stage. I would see this again and I'm eager to see what else this creative team can do. There's a Spirited Away stage show that I think is coming to the US next year, and if that's put on by the same people I will be there!
The Story, a re-staging of a 2003 American play, felt irresponsible. I'm not really sure what point the playwright nor the director were trying to make in staging this. I won't dwell on my criticisms of this because it made me angry! The one saving grace is that I bought a bunch of books on puppetry and immersive theater in the bookshop at the National Theater after the show.
We also learned that every theater in London serves ice cream? That is just a thing they do? It's nice. On our last day in the city I had fish and chips at a pub and it was exactly what I hoped it would be.
Then we took the Eurostar to Paris! This was our third time in Paris and it's just…I fuckin love Paris. It's probably my favorite city in the world. I feel so nice there, and the buildings and streets are so nice, and everybody is so pretty.
I took half a day from the Paris part of our trip to visit Disneyland Paris, obviously. This was my second time at les parcs Disneyland. The first time, a couple years ago, was during a time when the second gate was under intense redevelopment and the few available attractions were caked with temporary construction walls. Those walls are down now, and the newly-renamed Disney Adventure World is "open," but it's still largely open space? I walked maybe half an hour past towering cranes to catch a glimpse of robotic Olaf.
But Disneyland Paris, the original/primary park, the castle park, is great. It's lacking on paper compared to Disneyland Anaheim, but it's a really nice hang. I don't think it ever gets terribly crowded, and it offers so many spaces to sit and linger and take in the environment, which is my favorite thing to do in a carefully-planned space like this. It certainly takes a cue from Paris in that regard.
I also realized that I think Paris's version of Pirates of the Caribbean is my favorite version. I have no idea if a person with a normal understanding of this ride and its versions around the world would actually notice the differences—I think they would if they rode them back-to-back—but the big change is that they tell the story in order, starting with the pirates sacking the village and ending with them as skeletons amid their treasures. It's a little less poetic than the looping/time-travel morality play design of the original, but I have come to think that it is a lot more successful and thrilling. I'm as shocked as you are about this.
This is a bit abbreviated because I'm writing it a few days in the future. I think the only time I pulled my laptop out of my bag on this whole trip was to watch Taskmaster in the hotel room. On Wednesday we flew back to the states, specifically to Minneapolis for a few days. I'll leave this entry here as is the law of blogging but I'll give you a little preview of what's to come: Minneapolis rocks?