Life Lessons for Lexie: Africa Edition: Globe to Globe Hamlet in Butare

Well I would have never thought it or believed it, but last weekend, I got to see a live production of Hamlet here in Rwanda. It was by far the coolest thing I've done in Butare. I enjoy our simple, quiet life in Butare and much prefer it to the bustle of Kigali, but it is a very quiet life. It's eleven books in two months type of quiet. We regularly as a group get Chinese at "The Chinese Restaurant" on Fridays, often have a movie night at Jim's Saturday and if you like to bike, there is usually a regular ride on Sundays. All in all, it's just pleasant and as stressful as the job can be, it provides a really nice balance to life.
But, when we were there was going to be a production of Hamlet, we were ecstatic. If you haven't figured it out, there isn't a lot of culture in the sense of the fine arts in Butare. I think it was Stacey or Tiffany who first texted the group asking who wanted to go. I didn't research the event much but figured it would be a nice Saturday afternoon activity. I arrived at the University thinking it was going to be a University production. Boy was I wrong. Apparently, there is a British troupe of actors from the Globe Theatre in London who are part of what is called Globe to Globe. They are performing a 2 year tour around the world of Hamlet... EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY has a performance. They actually did a performance at the Folgers Shakespeare Library last July in DC and I suspect that a few people I know went to the performance (Emily?). I hadn't seen or read Hamlet since high school and actually was thinking that my high school Shakespeare teacher, Ms. Ward would be very disappointed that I couldn't even reiterate the story when someone asked me. Fortunately for Wikipedia, I was able to remind myself of the storyline.

Globe to Globe is fantastic. It is a very simple set (I mean who would want to travel for 2 years with a complicated set) and simple costumes, but the actors are just so fantastic. True to Africa, the performance started about 30 minutes late because the electricity was out (now a common occurrence on Saturdays in Butare) and I assume the University generators weren't working. Then about 15 minutes into the show it went out again, so they decided to move the performance outside. Everyone grabbed seats on the steps or right down in front (Jim and Jared did this and were incorporated into the performance), sunscreen was passed around for all the white people, umbrellas, sunglasses and hats were pulled out and the show continued!
It was awesome. I loved seeing Rwandans walking by and deciding to stay and watch what was going on. The children liked the sword fights and it was interesting to see where the cultural difference lay within the audience. For instance, the Rwandans were a little uncomfortable when there was a very chaste kiss on stage... they tend to laugh at moments that westerners would think inappropriate, as in Polonius' murder, things like that were very interesting to see. But regardless, it was just so amazing to have this piece of western culture brought to Butare. We all agreed that it was by far the coolest thing we have done in our six months here.

Lessons Learned:
1) Everyone should support the fine arts, they are so important.
2) You never fully realize how much you miss something until you get a little taste of it.