more cake, please

Oh boy, oh boy! This is the only time in my life that I have been reduced to a quivering, giggling, jumping, and completely loopy fan girl (See the manical grin plastered on my face). The young gentleman in the center is Jonathan Cake, who plays Caius Marcius Coriolanus in Shakespeare's Coriolanus, which Janet and I saw at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre when we were in London.

The theatre was open-air, and we opted to stand for the three hours. The play was performed in a way that was amazingly interactive and engaging (though I make no claims about the authenticity or my level of understanding of Shakespearean English pronunced with British/Cockney accents). Some of the actors were interspersed among the audience and leapt up when they had their lines. They ran through the audience onto the stage and there was even one scene where Coriolanus came into the audience to beg for their approval.

After the play, I was so thrilled that I asked the attendants if I could possibly get some autographs (probably the most daring thing I've done in the past four years). Janet and I rushed through the building and asked two more attendants before we found the stage door and started squealing. A few people came out, including my personal favorite, Sicinius Velutus, who was so dry that it wasn't possible for him to be more dry. Then Jonathan Cake came out, and we got a picture with him! All 6'3" of him! Sir Cake is apparently one of Britain's finest actors and was even on Empire, a dismal mini-series that aired on ABC last summer (I actually saw the first episode before I decided that it wasn't worth watching). But, but...he was a gladiator on the series!!!! I have a special space in my heart reserved for gladiators.

Fewer and fewer actors came out, but Janet and I were on a high, so it was all right. The lady manning the stage doors kicked us out to lock the door, and with our infallible logic, reasoned that the only way that the actors could leave would be through the main door, so we went and stalked the main door. Then this guardian angel (aka security guard) saw two little Asian girls standing outside with bright faces and took us to the cast party in the pub garden next door!

We went up and met all of the actors, and found out that one of them (Joseph Marcell) actually played the butler on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:) Now I wish I had watched that show when I was younger. Margret Leicester, who played the wicked and ambitious mother in the play, hugged us so tightly that I thought she'd choke me. The little boy (~15) who played Coriolanus's son and whose only role in the play was to look sad and hold out his hands beseechingly was shooting pool and very embarrassed that two girls wanted his autograph (I told him that he did an amazing job looking sad). Coriolanus's wife (Virgilia) was amazingly pretty in the play and even prettier in jeans rather than a sack dress. The only reason why I mention her is that she and Coriolanus shared a kiss onstage that made a huge popping noise, probably as loundly as I can scream. That was amazing.

Enough digressions and back to Jonathan Cake. What made the play so great was that Coriolanus is a heroic general with so much pride that it was literally spilling out of his ears. And he was a total momma's boy. Cake was very fiery, and had he been on the screen, would have completely overacted. But the acting was solid all around and quite marvelous. Afterwards, when we met him, he just seemed like such a preppie, with a slight whiff of that I'm hot and I know it attitude. It was hilarious. But he was really really nice, not to mention that Janet thought that he had nice legs.