The Tempest and Twelfth Night in York

You may remember at the end of June I went to the pop up Rose theatre in York to see Henry V. We went last year too, and were really excited by the programme this year. At the beginning of September we - me, Jacqui, Sam and Jodie - decided to do a double bill. It was the Tempest in the afternoon by one company, and Twelfth Night in the evening by the other company.

I did both these plays at school - Twelfth Night in some depth - so I knew the stories unlike with Henry V which I didn't have a clue about. We took our seats - high up on the second tier but facing straight on to the stage, so we had a great view. The staging for the Tempest was pretty steampunk in nature, so it looked really pretty.

I enjoyed the first half, but lost the thread of what was happening, so in the intermission I looked up the synopsis of the plot on Wikipedia. That really helped and although I'm far from stupid I sometimes can't understand the language. Shakespeare is hard! I enjoyed the second half a lot more than the first, and thought it was really well done.

We went over to 31 Castlegate for food. We went there in June, too, and had quite a strange waiter, but the food was nice. They have a set menu for £19, which has plenty of vegetarian and vegan options, which I do appreciate, but this time we had an even stranger waiter and I've been quite put off going again. Weird!

We went back over to the theatre and took the exact same seats for Twelfth Night. This time, it was staged like it was the 1920s, all jazz bands and flapper dresses. I know Twelfth Night a lot better. I did it for GCSE and had to act the part of Sir Toby Belch as part of my coursework I think. It was really fun, and funny. It was the last night and the actors seemed to be in a really celebratory mood, which added to it. They broke the fourth wall a couple of times, which was really funny. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm glad it was the second play of the day.

At the end the director gave his thanks and so on, and he said that the theatre will be back next year! We've already been discussing what we hope comes to it, and I know I'll go back to see more!

Here's my photos - although I'll do my outfit in another post:

The staging for the Tempest - there's Prospero just chilling out before the play started

I loved this Shakespeare quote poster behind the seats. There's so much Shakespeare that people know off the top of their heads

Goats cheese mousse for starter. It was nice, but I had it last time and it was nicer last time

Mushroom risotto, this was really nice

Sticky toffee pudding, it was nice but this is when the waiter was weird

The neon sign for Twelfth Night

Jac and Sam and Jodie and me, on the upper tier. It wasn't that full

And lastly, here's the stage all lit up in the intermission when it was a bit darker