Life's a stage

I was out with boyfriend yesterday because it was such a beautiful day. The sun actually stayed out for more than an hour. I had some books to return to the county library down by Westgate Centre (Queen Street). It's a very good library by the way.

The sun was shining, the streets were lively with families out for a stroll and rowdy teenagers piling up on the statue in front of Westgate. I took the boy on a looooong stroll along the Thames. It was gorgeous! I'd been up there before, in september when the trees still had leaves, but this time it was both peaceful and dramatic. The light was a little strange later in the day and the trees were gold and a metallic sort of green.

We tried to walk back to the town centre down the other bank but somehow ended up in a wild bit of scrubland between two arms of the river with no bridges. We turned around and ended up walking down Iffley Road. From there, we went to the G&D's on Cowley Road, something of a regular haunt for us.

The Oxford Playhouse was holding a "show" called Etiquette. Boy and I were having coffee and ice-cream close to the two tables by the window which were covered in a black cloth and had props and headphones on them. Couples sat at the tables and listened to instructions. They were clearly playing out a scene. We were intrigued but didn't really think to participate in whatever this was. After the end of one performance though, the woman in charge of the thing came to ask us if we wanted to give it a try if the people who had reserved the next slot didn't show up. We said ok. So we did it.

I don't know what to make of the experience. It was intriguing... There we were, playing out a scene at a cafe in Paris between a prostitute and an old man. Then we were actors in a play about a woman leaving her husband. Then there was something about a murder. All this using the props and language (we had to repeat certain lines, at times it worked really well as he was replying to the questions I asked and vice-versa at the proper speed). It was a little unsettling. At times it was very hard to hear what boy was saying so I missed part of the experience very likely. Still, it's pretty cool and I recommend the experience. The whole audience becomes actors becomes characters. The use of little white figures and chalk on the black board works really well. I completely forgot the other people in the cafe for a while. But I still don't know what to make of the play itself.