Heaven and Hell

Blogs 9 and 10

By Isaac Overman

June 6 2022

For our journey today, we ventured to Westminster Abby. The church was glorious—but I have the feeling that if not for our wonderful guide Molly—we would have had a much greater chance of missing out on the beauty and significance that this church has maintained throughout the centuries. In one of the corners of the church, there is a small section devoted to the artists, poets and writers. This section had members such as Shakespeare and Jane Austen whose bodies did not reside there and others like Lord Tennyson, Rudyard Kipling and Charles Dickens. Honestly, the Poets Corner, as it is affectionately called, is filled with pretty much every single major player in the British literature scene. But for me at least, the graves of Charles Dickens and Handel were amazing to see. I know Handel is not technically a poet or writer but he is close enough. I was curious more than anything the story behind Charles Dickens being buried at Westminster. After a little research, I learned that he almost was not buried there at all. In fact a grave had been dug at Rochester Cathedral near his home. He even asked that he be buried there in his will but in the end he was given a spot at Westminster. It might not be exactly what he wanted but he definitely deserves to be amongst their ranks. Handel on the other-hand bewildered me because he was born in Germany. I learned that the reason he was entombed there is because he changed the landscape of British music and wanted to entrench himself as being that figure rather than being a German outsider. He left 600 euros which was a lot for the time, in his last will and testament so that a monument could be built for him. Both men had a massive impact on their eras but both ended up at Westminster for polar opposite reasons. It was beyond amazing to see all these great authors in one place.

Following this great tour, we all had some time to catch a light dinner. I ate at Prima which was a small trattoria. I dined alone in the back of the restaurant and the food was good. After we all regrouped to see The Glass Menagerie featuring Amy Adams. My fresh impression is that it was a very safe interpretation of a play that should be anything but safe. I love Tennessee Williams and this play is near and dear to my heart. But it took very few liberates from the script. It did not feel free in anyway. It felt more confined by the script than anything else. I am glad that Amy Adams was there though. Her midwestern/southern bell accent was on point and I feel like she captured the uniqueness of the mothers mental state. But that is where my compliments end. I think the lighting was strange and could have either been brighter or darker. It felt far too in between the two extremes. And then there was the portrayal of the sister. And I do not understand why she made the sister borderline inept at dealing with day to day life. In the script she clearly has anxiety issues but in this version it felt like she was closer to a severe mental illness rather than a struggle to be overcome. I feel like the beauty of the play is that every character is culpable for the dysfunction of the family unit but it did not feel like she was in anyway. She was more of a bystander rather than apart of the family. The accents where solid in my opinion. But it is weird to be an American watching the British in England playing Americans. As an American I think the plays setting is less important then many make it out to be. I do not think that the play would lose any of it luster if it was set in Liverpool instead of St. Louis. It was a play that described something very personal to Williams and I think that if nothing else came across the fact that there was pain, real pain there is undeniable. I hurt for Tom and that is why even though it was not perfect—I enjoyed my time with it. That being said, I struggled with the seating. I am a 6 foot three and this seating was brutal. During the last half, I basically lost all feeling in my legs. And on top of that the guy behind me kept telling me to move my head, or that I was moving too much. At one point he started kicking the chair when I did not respond to his insistent prattle. This pretty much ruined the experience but at least it was not while watching Life of Pi or Straight-line Crazy. Today was heaven in the morning and hell after dark.