"Sister Suffragette," "Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher," and Other Hits

16 September 2008

Before I begin my narrative for the day, let me say: I can't believe that our time in London is almost finished. A moth has come and gone like a bird speeding through the air. It's simply unbelievable.

Well. To begin my narrative, today, I went on Sarah Salisbury, Abby Reed, and Liza Williams' tour on British suffragist and suffragette movements during the early 1900s. I'll admit that the topic didn't intrigue me beforehand, partially because my mind can't any thoughts related to it without the song "Sister Suffragette" from Disney's Mary Poppins becoming stuck there. Fortunately, it turned out to be much more than the impassioned slogans one hears from Mrs. Banks. Explaining that the tour was their response to criticisms of Her Naked Skin, which many in our program believed to have failed to provide any information about the campaign for the right to vote, they led us across a significant part of the West End and the City of Westminster. We began on the steps of the Arran House, marched Millicent Fawcett's house on Gower Street, to St. George's Church Bloomsbury where Emily Davidson was buried after throwing herself in front of the King's horse at the Epsom Derby; and from there, we traveled via the Underground to Royal Albert Hall and Hyde Park--popular sites for the suffragettes' public demonstrations--and south on to the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey.

From first to last, the tour was well organized, and in those terms, I would say that it was the superior of the tour on politics and theater. However, I have to say that ultimately, I enjoyed the tour on politics and theater to a greater degree than I did the tour on the suffragettes. It may have been better organized and its participants were certainly better speakers, but there was a certain want of enthusiasm I detected in Sarah, Abby, and Liza. Now as I reflect over it, the whole production was too professional and it was rather cold. A mechanical procession of facts and information, it was cold and efficient. Additionally, as well organized as it was, it wasn't without its flaws--like the politics and theater group, I felt that they didn't divide the workload well among themselves, and I also thought that apart from a few remarks outside Fawcett's house or in Hyde Park, they really didn't connect the whole movement to the history, culture, and background of London.

Later that night, we attended a production of Billy Elliot: The Musical at the Victoria Palace in the West End. As spectacles go, it was certainly impressive. It had not a few songs that we're rather enjoyable; "Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher" leaps most readily to mind. However, watching it, I apprehended a problem--or perhaps "phenomenon" or "reality" is a better choice of word?--that I had noticed in nearly every production we've attended: that is, I thought that it worked better as a film. Beforehand, Professor Rudalevige also asked us to consider whether it would succeed in the States, particularly since it is scheduled to open on Broadway in the immediate future. Having watched it, I would say, "No." My rationale is that as a drama, it was too heavily invested in the British class syetm, which is far, far different from the class system we know in the United States. Whereas ours tends to be rather informal (because as Americans, we have this pleasant fiction that ours is a truly "classless society" because anyone can succeed if they work hard enough), the British system has assumed a more formal, more ossified shape, probably because there a few more centuries of history behind it. Dress, speech, schooling, neighborhood, attitudes, politics--they are all heavily wrapped up in the notion of class. Moreover, in terms of its political messages in the visual and dramatic arts, Americans have historically preferred subtlety to bold declarations of principle. And I don't think an enormous effigy of Maggie Thatcher with the word "HATE" written in bold capital letters on her long, knife-like fingernails is exactly "subtle."

When the show ended and we were making our way toward the street from the theater, Professor Rudalevige happened to see me, and he asked me, "So, Chad, what did you think?" What could I do? I had to be honest--and yet I also tried to be diplomatic about it.

"Not too bad," I said after a moment of hesitation.

"Not too bad?" He responded feigning incredulity. "Not too bad? Get away from me. If all I get is a 'not too bad,' I want my forty pounds [the amount he paid for each of our tickets] bac."

Half reaching for my wallet, I couldn't resist the temptation to play along. "I have twenty on me right now," I said with a grin on my lips, "but if you want to see me on Stipend Day, I can pay you then."

He laughed, I'm happy to say. Definitely, it was one of my wittier moments since I have arrived in England.

I headed home in the company of Lauren Deitz, Zack, Meghan, Tristan, and Emma. We chilled in Zack and Tristan's room for a while where between Emma's fascination with the television series "Bonanza" and Meghan's constant pestering of Zack, who was trying to pack his clothes, I was very well entertained. We sallied forth around eleven o' clock in search of a pub which we had heard was opened till two o' clock in the morning. We didn't want too much. Just a pint, perhaps two. In the end, thought, it was all for naught, and we returned to the Hotel around twelve o' clock. Ascending the stairs to my room, I dabbled on my laptop for about a half-hour and then I went to bed.

Addendum

For your entertainment (and also hopefully for your enlightenment):

"Sister Suffragette" from Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (1964)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUhwA-C-ACg

"Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher" from Billy Elliot: The Musical (2005)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l51fXC3SsQ0