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"It’s fine, Ms Foley I’ve seen Hamlet before, and the hotel is just over the square from here"
"Really? Oh, that would be lovely Would you believe in all the years I’ve been doing this, I have never seen the Bard’s Haives a little ently elbow her I smile at Ms Foley "Well, then, you definitely shouldn’t h we are discussing important business here, order of succession to the throne or so Then she reaches forwith you, Allyson I shallpeople today were like you You are such a" She pauses for a irl"
"Thank you," I say automatically But her compliment leavesshe could think to say about ht now
"Good girl, hs once we are clear of the queue and she can give up her swooning act
"Be quiet I don’t like pretending"
"Well, you’re awfully good at it You could have a pro career of your own, if you ask me"
"I don’t ask you Nohere is this place?" I look at the flyer "Canal Basin? What is that?"
Melanie pulls out her phone, which, unlike my cell phone, works in Europe She opens the map app "It appears to be a basin by the canal"
A few minutes later, we arrive at a waterfront It feels like a carnival, full of people hanging about There are bargeseverything fros What there isn’t is any kind of theater Or stage Or chairs Or actors I look at the flyer again
"Maybe it’s on the bridge?" Melanie asks
We walk back over to the e, but it’s justaround in the hot night
"They did say it was tonight?" Melanie asks
I think of that one guy, his eyes so iht was too nice for tragedy But when I look around, there’s no play here, obviously It was probably some kind of joke--fool the stupid tourist
"Let’s get an ice creaht’s not a total write-off," I say
We are queuing up for ice creauitars and the echoey beat of bongo drums My ears perk up, my sonar rises I stand on a nearby bench to look around It’s not like a stage has ically appeared, but what has justone, under a stand of trees
"I think it’s starting," I say, grabbing Melanie’s hand
"But the ice crea her toward the crowd
"If uy playing Duke Orsino looks nothing like any Shakespearian actor I’ve ever seen, except maybe the movie version of Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio He is tall, black, dreadlocked, and dressed like a glaht vinyl pants, pointy-toed shoes, and a sort of mesh tank top that shows off his ripped chest
"Oh, we so ht choice," Melanie whispers insoliloquy to the sounds of the guitars and bongo druo upthe actors around the waterfront When they move, we move, which makes it feel like we are a part of the play And maybe that’s what makes it so different Because I’ve seen Shakespeare before School productions and a few plays at the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre But it’s always felt like listening to soe I didn’t know that well I had to force myself to pay attention, and half the tiain, as if it would i
This tie and I’m sucked fully into the story, the same way I am when I watch a movie, so that I feel it When Orsino pines for the cool Olivia, I feel that pang in uys I was invisible to And when Viola mourns her brother, I feel her loneliness And when she falls for Orsino, who thinks she’s a
He doesn’t show up until act two He’s playing Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother, thought dead Which makes a certain sense, because by the ti to think he never really existed, that I’ve reen, chased after by the ever-loyal Antonio, we chase after hiet closer," I say to Melanie She grabs ht at the part where Olivia’s clown coue before Sebastian sends hiht before he does, he seems to catch my eye for half a second
As the hot day softens into twilight and I’m sucked deeper into the illusory world of Illyria, I feel like I’ve entered so can happen, where identities can be swapped like shoes Where those thought dead are alive again Where everyone gets their happily-ever-afters I recognize it’s kind of corny, but the air is soft and waring, and it seems like, for once, maybe it can happen
All too soon, the play is ending Sebastian and Viola are reunited Viola coirl, and of course he noants to marry her And Olivia realizes that Sebastian isn’t the person she thought she married--but she doesn’t care; she loves hiives the final soliloquy And then the actors are out and bowing, each one doing so a little silly with his or her bow One flips One plays air guitar When Sebastian bows, he scans the audience and stops dead on me He smiles this funny little half smile, takes one of the prop coins out of his pocket, and flips it to me It’s pretty dark, and the coin is small, but I catch it, and people clap for me too, it now seems
With the coin inI clap as if doing so can prolong the evening, can transforht I clap so that I can hold on to this feeling I clap because I knoill happen when I stop It’s the saood movie--one that I’ve lost myself to--which is that I’ll be thrown back toholloill settle in ain just to recapture that feeling of being inside so real Which, I know, doesn’t ht The crowd is dispersing; the actors drifting off The only people left fro around the donation hat I reach into my wallet for a ten-pound note
Melanie and I stand together in silence "Whoa," she says
"Yeah Whoa," I say back
"That was pretty cool And I hate Shakespeare"