The Royal Botanical Gardens are in a little town called Kew, don't mistake that with not being a pricey neighborhood though because if the Audis and Mercedes were any indication it was pretty ritzy. The gardens are huge and it is definitely worth a visit to see some of the beauty of the gardens. I have to admit though that with my not being particularly botanically inclined I didn't find myself absolutely as fascinated as I probably should have been.
I thought this Gateway of the Imperial Messenger (4/5ths actual size of its parent in Japan) was really amazing looking. It was built for the Japan-British Exhibition in 1910 and then moved here. Super beautiful and elegant looking.
Ananya hates birds and a peacock got a crush on her. She is hiding behind Rob.
So this is my only picture of a very neat experience. A few of us got to go see a wonderful play at the Royal Theatre (surprisingly small actually) called Love, Love, Love. It takes place in three acts (and everyone scrambles to the bar in the lobby during intermissions to try and get beer or wine.) The first act is set in the sixties where boy meets girl (who is actually boy's brother's date). They are both completely enraptured in the movements of the sixties. They protest, smoke weed, and really believe that they are going to change the world from what it has always been. The brother serves as a great embodiment of the fifties and old notions of hard work and conservative political feelings. They fall in love during the first act and decide that before they go back to Oxford in the fall that they are going to hop on a bus and travel. The second act begins with the boy (now father) and his children returning home in the eighties. The daughter's mother failed to appear for her violin recital and is upset (it is also her birthday). Mother (the girl from the first act) returns home and the kids go upstairs. Mom and Dad fight. They are both deeply unhappy with their lives. They work too much, smoke too much, drink like crazy, and both have been having affairs. Daughter comes back "downstairs" to scream at them twice or so about their loud argument. The kids come down for sister's birthday cake and mom tells them that they are getting a divorce. The scene is a frighteningly real rendering of a dysfunctional family where no one is getting what they need from their relationships. Daughter runs upstairs, slams the door, and then screams. The parents run upstairs and pound on the door until the scene ends. Act 3 begins with the daughter coming into what we take to be her divorced father's home. It is lavish and we gather that he is retired and very well off. The mother visits and we see that this is the first time that they have been together in a long time. The daughter, now almost 40, tells her parents that she wants them to buy her a house. She resents her parents for living well while she has been working hard her whole life and can't afford even her own place. Her parents defend themselves and talk about how hard they worked to be where they are culminating in my favorite line from the mother: "we didn't climb the ladder, we built the ladder." And the scene ends with the parents deciding that they want to travel the world together.
The whole play was incredibly done and afterwards we got to do a little Q&A with the cast and directors. Having never really gotten into the sixties and seventies it was a fascinating experience to observe the generation that sprang from it. I was more that a little reminded of my own parents in that final scene and it made me try to picture them as optimistic youth. The terrifying question that I was left with at the end of the production was why were the parents now successful and well off while the daughter who had worked just as hard had nothing to her name, not a car or property or a family? Its a scary question that we like to ignore. There's definitely a component of the financial market just not being as good but there are a lot of people with degrees and bad jobs out there today. In our parents time if you didn't like your job you just started over. Now you have to begin back at school, with four years and tens of thousands of dollars in debt ahead of you. It was a play that raised many questions and gave no answers, which in my mind is ideal. Good theater should make the viewer think and I definitely did. So a lovely night out at the Royal Court Theater. I am looking forward to more theater in London!
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