Review- Krapp's Last Tape

Last night, I attended a performance of Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” at the Duchess Theatre in Covent Garden. I had been interested in seeing this show for quite some time as it was on a seriously limited run (eight weeks) after transferring to the West End from Dublin Gate. Unfortunately I had also kept putting it off and realized that the run was due to finish this coming Saturday. As I was only available to see it on Tuesday night because of other events going on, I hastily snatched up a ticket and I do not regret that I did.

This play is strange. Needless to say, it’s Beckett. For those of you who are not too familiar with Beckett’s work he is an absurdist writer who really digs into the crevasses of human nature through very bizarre stage tactics. This is a man who has written an entire play involving two characters buried up to their chests in a hill (Happy Days) and therefore cannot move at all around the stage. This play (Krapp’s) involves one single character on stage for approximately fifty minutes. There are only a few hundred lines in the entire performance and there’s more to see in the physicality of the performance rather than the words themselves. The play begins in complete darkness with Krapp slumped over his desk…and he lays there. For one minute, than another, than another. Until finally there’s a slight movement of a finger…then a hand…and he picks himself up. The tone and tempo for this play is set. You discover throughout the performance that Krapp is a failed writer who takes the abnormal task of recording his voice on his birthday (described as the “awful occasion”) telling the story of the year gone by. He also has a penchant for bananas, in a rather humorous bit at the beginning, and alcohol. The stage is lit by a single light over his desk and the rest of the space is darkness. Krapp himself is disheveled, old, tattered, and slightly pathetic in the eye of the viewer. This makes it so much more intriguing to find out exactly what happened to him. Not a word is spoken on stage until about 20 minutes into the performance as Krapp manages to find his tapes, recorder, and a book chronicling his recordings. It becomes clear as a viewer that he’s looking for a specific tape (one from thirty years ago) as he reads out the exact box and spool with which to find it. The methodic placement of everything on his desk and the playing of the tape take a distinct air of ritual, he’s clearly done this before. Probably every year since he’s made that specific tape. We listen in to his ramblings on about life, his clear love for women, and the many drunken escapades with them. He has since unraveled over the years and he clearly wishes to be that “stupid bastard” he listens to year after year. One hilarious moment comes when Krapp becomes frustrated with the meandering of himself and suddenly becomes enraged and fast-forwards through the tape until finally reaching the part he was searching for. The description of a woman…a special woman of whom he clearly cared deeply for, and lost. As this begins to unravel Krapp even further we get a glimpse of the man he used to be and the man he has become. We empathize with Krapp for his heinous regret and unfathomed self-loathing that is blanketed upon the stage. What happened to him? We’ll never know, the play is over and it’s out of the theatre to ponder the life untold of this sad, old man.

The character of Krapp was played by Michael Gambon (the second Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film series). He played this character brilliantly and I have never seen anything like it on stage before. The slightest gesture, idiosyncratic movement, or step had distinct purpose and revealed more of this character than you could ever get from words. He saunters to and fro across the stage fulfilling his yearly routine as one who cannot perform the tasks he so readily tortures himself with as he could years before. This character must be played by an older man. The experience and age needs to be evident on stage. Therefore the usage of stage effects for age would only take away from the overall experience. I envy Mr. Gambon. His amount of stage experience combined with his age (life experience) is poured into the character and you can see Krapp as any person, even someone in your own neighourhood…it’s just that believable. He explores every part of the stage as if he’s been there before yet discovering it for the first time. It’s difficult to truly put into words this superb performance but I highly suggest if anyone reading this has an opportunity to see Michael Gambon on stage to do so, you won’t regret it.

The Duchess Theatre itself was also a wonderful choice to host this performance. It is a slightly older looking theatre on both the inside and out and is quite small compared to others in the area. The confined seating area only added to the richness of the performance. There’s an unrivalled intimacy between the character on stage and the audience watching him. Your immediate surroundings are dark and hollow much like Krapp’s and you almost feel like you are travelling on this journey with him instead of a clear separation between the two. It was quite a comfortable viewing experience and I will definitely be attending a performance there in the future.

I apologize to all of those who cannot have the opportunity to see this play. I’ve tried to do it justice in my words but I feel almost like Krapp himself, a writer failing to capture the world around him. It’s difficult with a play like this because so much of it is visual. To all those drama geeks out there, find this play! Read it, study it, understand it, see it if you can. And then read it thirty years from now and experience how much age comes into the understanding. This play is fraught with perpetual swings of emotion and leaves you with ample opportunity for self-reflection at the end. Krapp represents everything we as humans do not want to become in our old age and thus displays the fragility of life itself. Oh, how quickly life can deteriorate around us if we don’t hold on to what and who we love. We learn not to take advantage of the joys we have every day and leaving the theatre we owe this self discovery to a man who has unfortunately done just that.

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year...

I’d like to take a moment of your time if I may to discuss one of my new found loves in this glorious city of London…the holidays! I have been absolutely mesmerized in the walking around in London the last few days because the entire city is lit up (literally and figuratively) for the holidays. I had the pleasure recently of going and seeing all of the lights strung up for miles down the main streets and it is dazzling. I highly recommend everybody who has the opportunity to walk down Oxford Street, Regent Street, and Carnaby Street to see some these main displays. One of the best aspects of these lights is how non-denominational they are. London is a fascinatingly multi-cultural city and this reflects in the many holidays that are celebrated in it throughout the year. There are many holidays that are celebrated around this time of the year so it’s clear that the creators of these exhibits do not want to alienate too many of the citizens of the city by being clearly biased towards one religion, and they did a fantastic job at it. The lights down Regent Street reflect a theme involving the Chronicles of Narnia. The third film in this series will be released through the holiday season and these lights reflect that, involving different displays of characters from the films with lights matching a certain tone. The lights are also strung up like a canopy above your head…it almost feels like captured stars above your head that you can reach out and almost touch. It’s quite magical. Down Carnaby Street there is an outer space theme involving planets revolving around each other, stars placed throughout the sky, and even an astronaut towering above it all. I haven’t taken any pictures yet but I’m sure to return to these magical areas and capture them on film eventually.



In a bit of a lesser non-denominational display there will be different Christmas tree lightings going on throughout the city over the next couple of weeks. Every year there’s a large tree donated by the people of Norway that gets placed and lit in Trafalgar Square as well as a particularly unique tree in Covent Garden. The tree in Covent Garden is strung up with lights as most others however it is very interactive combined with a single piece of mistletoe nearby. The tree displays a dazzling light show that lasts approximately one minute every time a couple kiss under the mistletoe. Definitely a unique experience for people around the city to say they did and it would be an amazing sight for people walking through the area to see the tree light up every time knowing that two people are sharing a special holiday moment together.


Besides the decorations there are plenty of other things to enjoy during the holidays. Mulled wine and mincemeat pies are two of my favourite holiday treats (both recently acquired). I highly suggest those of you who haven’t tried either of these to do it at least once. They are both very traditional aspects of the holidays in England and are quite enjoyable separate but more together. There are the many ice rinks that open throughout the city near the end of November. They run through until January and offer a unique skating experience for tourists and city dwellers alike. As a Canadian I am definitely looking forward to this. Skating is almost a patriotic duty and being able to quell that craving will go a long way to dispel any feelings of homesickness I might feel over the holidays. In addition these there are always the countless museums and galleries that tend to put on new exhibits during this time of year and the always amazing West End shows that continue to play. Protocol is also putting on a couple of events throughout the holidays including the Winter Travel Evening this week and a Christmas Meal in the middle of December that I highly look forward to attending.


London truly offers a unique opportunity throughout the holidays and I really anticipate getting out and doing as much as possible when I can. As I’ve said earlier I recommend that everyone who will be sticking around the city for the holidays also take advantage of these opportunities. These events only roll around once a year and with a limited amount of time in this country for some of us it’s worth taking a moment to experience. Oh, and don’t forget to squeeze in New Years on the Thames too!!


Cheers and Love!!
 
Erik

Another Week Gone By

Well, it’s been a pretty good end to my week over her e in foggy (and rainy and cold and windy) London-town. As I mentioned previously I was booked to finish off the entire week at Henry Compton School. It’s fantastic that I ended up getting a full five days worth of work but it was definitely a long week. Not having been used to working every day in the week it got to the point where I was starting to feel really exhausted and worn out but I’m starting to really develop a good routine to make sure that I’m getting myself unwound at the end of the day and making sure to take the time to do something enjoyable every night (be it watching t.v., a bit of a movie, reading, etc.) in order to have some time to myself and relax. It definitely paid dividends because I felt great at the end of the week and into a nice week-end.



On Wednesday I was covering for a Geography and History teacher who also teaches some Public Services courses. Public Services are GCSE courses that show students the world of working in areas such as the military that work in the public sector. I had about three Geography classes that had to work on a crossword and the two PS classes needed to complete some worksheets. The teacher also left me a DVD with some Discovery Channel documentaries on it so I threw those on while the students were working. For the most part the classes were not too bad. I had some disruptive students here and there but generally not that bad. The worst ones I ended up having to have taken out of the classroom because they were just getting too out of control.


Thursday I was covering a Science teacher in the school. I had already met this teacher previously and it was nice that she remembered me when I saw her that day. She was proctoring GCSE exams for Year 10 students so she couldn’t be in her classroom that day. Luckily the Year 8 class I had first lesson were being taught by a student teacher, I just needed to remain in the classroom and make sure they listened and help them with the work. I had a Year 10 class after that who were doing revision for their exams that day so I just let them get on with it. No lesson 3 class (it’s nice having spares every now and then) and lesson 4 was a Year 8 class. This particular class was very bottom set and the students have a lot of special needs. The class itself was only comprised of 6 students but it seemed almost like 60 as soon as they walked into the door. Their regular teacher can usually handle them fairly well but as soon as they saw me instead they started (literally) running around the school. I eventually got them into the class and settled and luckily the teacher ended up checking in half way through the lesson and sticking around to help me out. I had never really experienced any class like that before so it was nice to see what sorts of tactics she used to get them under control. The lesson 5 class was a Year 9 Design Technology class. They were apparently supposed to have been using soldering irons that day to continue on a task but the teacher left me a different design task for them to do. They were upset about that and very vocal about it so they ended up not really working at all. I had to have four of them removed from the class just because they were doing really stupid things and being extremely rude to me which is obviously not tolerable in a classroom.


Friday ended up being a great day to finish off the week. I was covering a different Science teacher this day because he has been having some kidney issues and needed to go in for a check-up. I had one Year 10 class for two consecutive lessons and one Year 9 class for two consecutive lessons. They were both very good classes that ended up completing their worksheets no problem so I gave them some free time to work on other things or chat quietly (it was Friday after all). With no lesson 5 class I ended up getting a jumpstart on my week-end at 2:00!!


The week-end itself ended up being really nice. I started out Friday night by heading to the Tup with Nate for a TGIF pint and ended up getting dinner there as well. The rest of the night we just stayed in and watched some TV and had a couple drinks. After a long week it was nice to just stay in and relax after such a long week of work. Saturday ended being a really long but fun day. I got some errands accomplished early in the morning and then headed into the city for 11:00am for the Lord Mayor’s Parade. The Lord Mayor of London is an ambassador position that is annually bestowed on a member of the London City Council and has been since the time of King John. This particular Lord Mayor is the 682nd in the history of the city. The parade itself was pretty cool with a lot of marching bands and different floats from community organizations. It was a pretty big military parade as well with all kinds of tanks, jeeps, and trucks combined with soldiers from all different branches of the armed forces. It was a really cool parade to watch and it definitely made me miss Queen’s Bands A LOT!! It got me into thinking that the Toronto Santa Claus parade is coming up a week from today and how much fun it’s going to be! Oh well….I had my time! After the parade I went around to some places to get some shopping of the Christmas variety done. I don’t have much more to do and am actually really happy that I have as much done as I have! I’ve even bought wrapping paper and cards and everything! I just need to get it all together so I can get them sent off across the ocean which I assume will take a little while. The sooner the better! That evening I ended up meeting with some people that I had met a couple weeks previously at the Halloween party. They are teachers as well, working in Surrey, and one of them is from Sarnia! Which I thought was quite bizarre at the time so we naturally started talking about that coincidence. Another also went to Queen’s last year for teacher’s college! She was in P/J mind you but still rather bizarre! We met up to watch the Lord Mayor’s Show of fireworks on the Thames and then went out to a couple of pubs and to see the Christmas lights on Oxford, Regent, and Carnaby Streets. A really long day but really nice at the same time, worth it that’s for sure!


Today I haven’t been doing too much…just unwinding again. I read the paper, did some grocery shopping (bought an advent calendar and mince meat pies!!!) and now I just need to get my room cleaned up and dinner on the go!


Not too much else to report on. I’m booked for Monday and Tuesday already this week. It’s unfortunately at Bishopsford (my arch-enemy school) BUT it’s work and at the end of the day that’s what matters. Plus, there’s only 25 school left until Christmas break and with 2 of those already covered that’s not too shabby! Other than that…


Cheers, Love, Rock The World!


Erik

I Remember...

Well, today is Remembrance Day. A day of the year when we take a moment to remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our freedoms and the freedoms of people around the world. Remembering those who have fought in countless wars, conflicts, or boiling point situations and those innocents who have been caught in the crossfire. War has been an unfortunate part of human existence since we started roaming this planet and members of our species have been dying as a result. In comparison to what some people in our history have gone through it isn’t so much to ask to take a moment on one day of the year to remember them. I loved logging onto Facebook today and seeing the number of profile pictures changed to poppies, the number of people sending words of remembrance across status updates, even using an event entitled “A Facebook Field of Poppies” to encourage people to do so. Remembrance Day has been an engrained aspect of our culture in Canada as well as others. I remember attending assemblies, recitations of “In Flander’s Fields”, and the Principal coming over the PA system to ask everyone to stop what they are doing, stand, and be silent to remember the fallen. Unfortunately however, this day has become such a part of my yearly routine that, although I understand and respect the reason for its existence, every time November 11th rolls around it’s almost like I just go through the motions each time. I buy a poppy and pin it to my coat (sometimes two or three if they fall off), I take that moment of silence, listen to the songs and the poems, and get back on with my day. I know that this sounds almost ignorant but it’s the truth. That is, it was the truth until this year.



Being on my own here in the UK has changed my perspective on a lot of things. This sudden and dramatic shift from being a student for so long to coming over here and being a professional teacher has been huge. I’ve learned to quickly adjust my teaching style every day in the classroom to approach situations in new ways. I’m slowly learning every day how to adjust into a similar yet very different society. I’m learning how to adjust to making money and budgeting it. At the same time I’ve grown a new appreciation for everything (and everyone) I left back home. I was really thrown off today when I was talking to the teacher whose classes I covered. I asked her whether the school would be having a moment of silence at 11:00 in honour of Remembrance Day and she looked at me like I was speaking a language she didn’t understand. Apparently that was something she was not aware of nor never participated in before in a school. I couldn’t believe it. For the students not to know something like that is a bit mind-boggling but I suppose that’s just part of the culture that they grew up with and I didn’t.


My brother Dusty wrote me a very touching e-mail today and I’m hoping he doesn’t mind if I share some of the ideas that he sent. Living in this city is very unique in that it was at the centre of some of the largest conflicts known to the human race. London was bombed daily throughout the most active years of the blitz and there are still remnants of that evident today. To actually stand in areas where people were under constant threat is very humbling indeed. Whenever I enter the classroom it can be a real toss-up as to what goes on. The students can be a delight and work through their assignments with no difficulty at all…or they can absolutely raise hell and get nothing accomplished at all. Either way, at the end of the day I usually come home exhausted…which is a good thing. No matter how hard or trying of a day I had…I always make sure to remember that it doesn’t compare to things people before have gone through and what some people are going through right now. I am thankful for the life I have and the people in my life. I am thankful for the peace I have lived in and the freedoms I have enjoyed. I remember those that fought and continue to fight to make these truths so. I remember.

Presenting His Royal Highness, The Duke of...Facebook?

Well, I thought I’d take this moment to discuss a rather funny addition to the wonderful, connected, and slightly addictive world of social networking…I am speaking of course of Her Majesty The Queen. Not only the Queen however, but the entire Royal Family. This doesn’t exactly excite the normal everyday local in Canadia-land…but it is quite a big deal here in the actual centre of the kingdom the Queen presides over. The thought of Queen Elizabeth slumped over a laptop typing her new status updates “Just got back from ANOTHER boat christening…such a good waste of champagne!” or “Phil just broke wind on the couch again! Will need to get the staff on steam-cleaning that spot :S” sort of makes you cringe. Of course…the Queen isn’t actually updating any statuses, confirming her attendance at any events, or commenting on William and Harry’s photo albums…that’s left to staff members to do, much like most official pages for celebrities or politicians. I don’t even know if she knows that she has a Facebook page…or what Facebook is for that matter. However, this new official Facebook page of the British Monarchy has become a hot bed in the news over the last few days. Why is this you might ask? The answer is a simple one…because of the people on Facebook who have joined it.



The page itself can be viewed here. I perused it yesterday and I must say, I was highly impressed at how amazingly boring it really is. I guess this is to be expected from the stiff top flight of the aristocracy in this great country. There’s really nothing the monarchy wants to officially publish other than the various events, openings, races, and dinners they attend as well as the varying official statements to the press. It’s really more of a record of the goings on of the Royal Family. They leave the stories of clubbing, drunkenness, and whether William has proposed to Kate Middleton yet to the Sun and Mirror. Now, this is all wonderful if you either cover the Royal Family for a major news outlet, you are a serious Royal junkie…or you are actually in the Royal Family. For most people this Facebook page doesn’t hold much significance except to impress your friends on their News Feed (of which I’m pretty sure I’m the first of my friends to “Like” it….so there.)


The continued existence of the Monarchy in Britain is a subject for much debate and has been for quite a few years. Some of the countries in the Commonwealth have already either voted to no longer recognize the Queen has their monarch or are debating whether to do so, the most recent of these being Australia. In a world where it is rather rare to find a country ruled as a true monarchy (I’m looking at you Lichtenstein) the viability of having its existence in Britain seems almost pointless. Sure they are descended from a long line of Royals and the monarchy has been the traditional symbol of English stability since the times of William the Conqueror…but what do they actually do now? Besides the aforementioned public appearances the reigning monarch is also the head of the Church of England and holds the privilege of ultimate veto on any parliamentary decisions (which rarely ever gets used). That is unfortunately about it. I’m sure you may be thinking that they’re not exactly harming anybody so why can’t they live out their inherited lifestyles? Well, to the British citizen they are unfortunately harming something…their wallet. The expenses of the monarchy for things such as travel, accommodations, event holdings, etc. are all footed by the British taxpayer you see. So, in desperate economic times such as these, when the Brits are facing some of the harshest budget cuts in decades, the necessity of paying for certain Royals to make good will appearances in foreign countries doesn’t exactly sit well with some.


Which brings us back to the brand spanking new Facebook page (see…there was a point). It seems that this new page has become a centre for decent (and indecent) democratic debate on the existence of the monarchy. It may not be exactly what the Royals had in mind (or at least whoever the brainchild of it is) but it has become that nonetheless. People have been making their opinions known about the monarchy through comment streams on photos, links, and videos. Some of them are tremendous claims of absolute love for the Queen, some serious and intuitive points for debate…and some just downright angry (such as the ever so popular and simple “fuck the queen” comment seen on most page updates.) Don’t even get me started on the irony of having to click on a button that says “Like” in order to completely and unabashedly claim your utter dislike…it hurts my head too much. The point is the debate on the Facebook page has caught the attention of the media and as of right now 204 665 people currently subscribe to it, with more and more joining every day.


Innovations in social networking have given fuel to many fires of social debate. They become mediums and forums for regular people to voice opinions across continents in a mere click of a mouse. Although the debate over the British monarchy as been around for some time it has never held quite a concentrated space in which to exist. No doubt this Facebook page will bring the debate to brand new levels…the question is how high will it go? And for how long? Although I am somewhat of a traditionalist at heart and enjoy the existence of the monarchy, I completely agree with one’s right to free speech and opinions. I understand where a lot of the negative opinions come from but can’t quite empathize with them until I am a British taxpayer myself (soon enough). Only time will tell exactly what this new page will lead to but we watch with open eyes and bated breath in the years to come. The only question that is truly burning in my brain right now is…how long until the Queen's tweeting?

This Time I'll Be Bullet-Proof

Well, it has definitely been quite the action packed week so far for me. I started out this week as I ended last week, at Henry Compton School. This is the all-boys school that I was mentioning before in previous posts. I haven’t had too many issues at this school thus far but I knew I was bound to have a bad day eventually…luck can only hold out for so long ha ha ha. There’s a great student body in this school but there’s also a lot of students that come from difficult or deprived backgrounds, plus when you factor in the “sibling rivalry”-esque atmosphere that lies like a fog over a school of only boys, it’s bound to breed some difficult students.



Monday was actually a pretty good day. I started out the day with a Year 7 Food class which I thought was pretty cool. Unfortunately we didn’t get to actually do any cooking at all. The students were assigned to design a three course menu for the school canteen (in practice). The point is to understand a balanced diet and why certain foods are priced certain ways, etc. The only problem was these students were fully expecting to be doing some cooking that day so they weren’t too impressed about the written work. Plus, this was a very small class but full of kids with special needs, mainly ADHD and hyperactivity so they had a hard time to sit still. I had them for two straight lessons so I gave them the chance to get up and stretch their legs between lessons. Giving them the taste however unfortunately unsettled them to the point that I was hard pressed to get them seated and working again. Luckily I had a couple of TAs in the class helping me out and it ended up being an alright lesson overall.


After this class I had a Year 10 Art class for two consecutive lessons. This was actually a pretty good lesson overall. They were working on supplementing their portfolios by taking still life pictures of insects and scaling them up to sketch them on larger paper. There’s some serious artistic talent in the class and I was very impressed. A couple of the students were chatting to me about football during the class while they were drawing which was pretty cool. The kids really like the fact that I can talk to them about the sport and it definitely helps to break some barriers. There were a couple issues with keeping some of them on task through 2 hours but it was an enjoyable lesson nonetheless.


To finish off the day I had a Year 11 Art class. This was definitely the best of the day. These students are working towards their GCSEs in Art and it’s an elective course so they definitely want to be there. They were working on portraits of villains from films and hey just got to work as soon as they were in the room. No problems and once the bell went I packed up and on my way home! It was definitely a great way to start off a week (way better than last week anyways). Once I got home I tinkered around on my computer, chatted with my flatmates, made dinner, and eventually hit the sack.


Now, today was a COMPLETELY different story. Funny enough I ended up back at Henry Compton School today as well. Today was the day my string of luck for classes would end. I had to cover the Head of Department for languages and ended up having four Year 9 Spanish classes and one Year 8 French class…..yeah. The Year 9’s in this school are definitely the biggest handful and are definitely the hardest to get under control and working. I won’t fill up this post with every single detail about the classes but every single class was the exact same routine. It took approximately 15 min just to get them into the class, settled, and quiet so I could just take attendance…amazing. The ones that did get to work were fantastic but most of them thought they could wreak havoc for the simple reason I was a supply. Most students have this notion that there will be no consequences for their actions because they think they’ll never see me again…they were dead wrong. I ended up having to have at least one student removed from each class for extremely disruptive behaviour (one throwing pencils left, right, and centre, two for constantly throwing paper airplanes at me, and one for repeatedly telling to shut-up when I requested him to sit back in his seat and start getting some work done.) It’s definitely just a few kids in the bunch that go too far but there were still a good chunk of kids in each class who were talking and not completing their work. Unfortunately for me a lot of them did not understand the work and I could do nothing to help them because I didn’t understand it myself. I tried my best to channel Casey and Julie for Spanish and French respectively but to no avail. It definitely didn’t help my cause. It’s all good though, I received a TON of help from the Assistant Head and he was very friendly and helped get me set up for the day. He was pretty impressed with my organization (I make detailed notes about each class I cover and leave them for the regular teacher) and thought I handled everything very well. He was going to be talking to the teacher I was covering and told me he would make sure to put in a good word about me. Even better than that I received a call from Protocol asking me if I could go back to Henry Compton for the rest of the week! A silver lining at the end of the day, I get a full five day work week for the first time. It should be interesting when I have some of those students again who think that they’d never have me in their classes again…eventually it should get to the point when I’ll know them very well and hopefully avoid some of these situations. Only time will tell I suppose.


Oh, and when I got home I checked the mail and I get both my ticket for the England-France match at Wembley next Wednesday and the tickets for the Fulham-Birmingham City match at the end of the month! So, not such a bad day after all.


I’ll make sure to update how the rest of the week goes at the school once I get to Friday. It’s only three days away! Ha ha ha ha. Until then:


Cheers, Love, Rock That World Everybody!


Erik

Reflections On A Week Gone By...

Well, as I sit here in my living room, hot shower completed and in my comfy clothes, I figured now would be a good time to reflect back on the last week of teaching yeah?



So, you all caught a glimpse of how my week went from a more event based point of view. I attended a Champions League match in Chelsea, made my opinions known about arts funding in education, and generally had a decent overall week…it didn’t start out that way however. On Monday morning I was told to go to Bishopsford for the day. For those of you who remember (and those of you who don’t) Bishopsford Arts College is my archenemy if one could have an archenemy in an inanimate object. Every time I go to that school I labour to get through my day and try to keep the massively unruly classes in check while I attempt to dispense some strand of knowledge on their impressionable minds. It’s exhausting, mentally and physically, and Monday was no different. I ended up having a bunch of humanities classes, which really boiled down to some RE, and they were quite the bunch. A lot of these students I have had in other classes before so it gives me the advantage of knowing their names from saying them out loud countless times. The year 7 and 8 students and hyper, loud, and they have a very difficult time sitting quietly to even listen to the instructions for what they need to do at the beginning of class. I had two year 11 classes, one of which was actually not too bad because it was a small class, but the other was very trying. One of the obstacles at Bishopsfords is that it caters to an area with a large immigrant population. Many of the kids in the classes speak English as a second language and therefore it is difficult sometimes to communicate with them. The year 11’s also have a nasty habit of always having their cell phones out. While there is a strict policy against the use of phones in class, enforcing it is something else…especially as a supply. I’m supposed to confiscate them and by that I mean ask for them and hope they put it in my hand. After an intense confrontation with one year 11 girl (whom I kicked out of the classroom) things began to settle down a bit and I was able to finish out the day. Definitely a trying day and it was especially difficult to start my week out on that note coming back from Half Term as well. Needless to say I was in a bit of a bad mood for a little while after and went to sleep fairly early.


Tuesday and Wednesday I ended up not working….boooooooooooooooooo. Tuesday I unfortunately didn’t get anything and Wednesday there was a tube strike going on that limited the amount of work coming into the Protocol offices. Quick lesson on the strike (for those of you who know about it, feel free to skip ahead.) Basically, the tube workers have had an ongoing feud with the City of London for well over a year now. The only problem is they can’t exactly all go on strike simultaneously for a long period of time because the entire city would go to shit…people depend upon the tube operating like nobody’s business. Instead they opt to go on strike for one 24 hour period once a month to make their point. This severely disrupts commuting and it’s been happening for so long that it’s almost just a regular part of the month (insert obligatory “that time of the month” joke here). As a result of the strike many schools opt to use other means to cover their classes because they know that supply teachers through agencies depend on the tube to get to a lot of schools and they can’t risk people running late. Long story short, it resulted in me getting no work that day.


On the plus side I got pre-booked to work at a school in Wimbledon the next day! Hooray! Reason #1 why I was excited: it is within walking distance of my house so I had no transit costs whatsoever. Reason #2: it is a performing arts specialist school so I was really keen to check that out. Reason #3: it is an all-girls school and I was intrigued to see how that would go. You see, when one thinks about an all boys school certain stereotypes run through the mind. Boy running around hitting and fighting each other, screaming, yelling, and running rampant…unfortunately a lot of these stereotypes are true. When one thinks of an all-girls school the opposite stereotypes tend to run through the mind. As I found out, those are also really true. I suppose it might just be a result of quicker maturity in girls but the day was awesome. I had a bunch of PE classes (which ended up just being computer work) and I gave the girls the task and they just….did it. Bizzare right? I ended up speaking to the head of the performing arts aspect to the school about potentially volunteering for productions and whatnot, even as just a member of the community. I think it would be great experience for me, I could impart some wisdom on them, and maybe even get an “in” to the school for future use. We’ll see how that goes.


On Friday I did a 180 and ended up back at Henry Compton School, the all-boys school. I had one hell of a time trying to get there too. I opted to take the tube there which unfortunately requires a few changes of lines to get to my destination. When I needed to board the District Line (a notorious one for disruptions) they had signal failures and did not know when it would be up and running again. Another long story short I had to run around London to hop on the Picadilly Line and then hit Hammersmith and then walk down to the school. I missed the first lesson. Luckily the school was aware of my plight and things were covered but I missed one period of the day unfortunately. I received my schedule for the remainder of the day and I was covering a year 7 maths class, a year 8 maths, year 8 english, and year 8….wait for it…DRAMA!!!!!! I was kind of excited about that one…I hadn’t seen the word drama on a cover timetable yet so I was pumped to say the least. The maths and English class went relatively well. The younger boys at this school seem to be a bit of a handful but they also have a large population of kids with special needs and a lot of hyperactivity. The kids seem to respond to me very well and I had a bunch of the same year 8’s throughout the day so there was at least some consistency there. The drama class ended up being a bit of a bust (sorry to disappoint you). Apparently a PGSE teacher (student teacher) was supposed to actually be running the lesson but the lesson plan built upon a previous lesson that these students had not had. So that all went out the window and we ended up combining that class with another year 8 class and bringing them up with the art teacher to his room to do some art instead. He led the class so I was demoted to a TA/damage control duty. It was fine and actually an easy way to schlep into the week-end. It turned out to be a decent week after all .


I didn’t end up getting into too much trouble over the week-end. Saturday I ended up taking a trip up to Kensington and Hyde Park because I hadn’t been up that way in a while and felt like I needed to get back into some London touristy things. I took the tube over to Harrods and get my mind blown by the ridiculously expensive things they have for sale there. Pretty much every major label you could possibly think of and it just made me feel like I needed to win the lottery some time really soon. After that I ended up taking a walk through Hyde Park and past Kensington Palace before heading over to Oxford Circus, down to Covent Garden for some mulled wine (sold right out on the street) and then a tube ride home for the evening.


Sunday I had a bit of a lazy day and spent most of it preparing myself for an audition that I would be having that evening. There’s a community theatre located east of where I live that puts on 22 shows every single year. It’s all a membership based program and being a full time member allows you to participate in shows (acting and production) as well as buy tickets and whatnot. I had been looking into this well before I arrived in London and looked forward to becoming a member and getting involved in shows during my time here. Since the theatre is comprised of all different age levels they can cast characters for shows based on age, not having to rely on younger actors to play older characters. I’ve been waiting for a show to come up that fits me and it finally did a little while ago and I’ve been looking forward to this evening ever since. The show is entitled “Entertaining Mr. Sloane” and it was written by a British playwright in the 60s. There’s also a film of it and it’s enjoyed a number of revivals in British theatre. It’s apparently a well enjoyed dark comedy about a psychopathic murderer (Sloane) who seduces and manipulates a brother and sister pair into convincing them he’s not a murderer all the while avoiding their crazy father who knows exactly who he is. For a plot synopsis you can click here to view the Wikipedia article. You could also YouTube the film if you’re so interested. I auditioned for the part of Mr. Sloane and thought it went fabulously. It was a bit odd because there were only three of us there last night (auditions take place over three evenings) and the director had all of us in the room at the same time doing auditions. We had three scenes to work with and we were sitting in the room as each person went…not exactly what I was expecting. There was a woman who was auditioning for the female part and another man auditioning for Sloane. Needless to say….I had to crush him. I don’t think he’s had any sort of acting training at all, I think he’s just a member of the theatre and thought to try out an audition. He ended up going first too so I took into account where I could adjust my own reading of the scene to make it a little tighter and better….I’m devious. The director seemed to like what I did and was laughing at some parts. He had me perform it in both a British and Canadian accent so I’m not sure how that’s going to work should I get cast. I felt confident after it all. As I said before there’s still a couple more days of auditions to be had so I don’t know any of the other competition for the role and I won’t hear back until next week at the earliest. Fingers crossed!


I think that’s about it! Sorry for having to cram all of that into one post…I should really get on writing these more often to save you and I some time. I’ll write about my day today tomorrow…if that makes sense…it was a good one though. I hope all’s well with everyone reading this and thank you all for the well wishes in regards to the audition. Other than that:


Keep fit and have….wait….that’s not it…


Cheers, Love, Rock That World!


That’s more like it.


Erik