The Brief Chronicles of Time

Drama seems to be everywhere right now. I don't mean drama as defined by Jacques sitting in the forest of Arden being wise; that's always there in any case. I mean drama in the more usual sense of the word.

The final show of Kamala was last night. Somehow people generally seem to perform best on the final night. I've never been able to figure out why it works that way. In any case, last night was good. I rather think Will would have enjoyed it if he had seen it, although he would probably have written a different ending.

One of my old classmates is doubling as Oberon and Theseus in Dream. You would have thought he'd be happy, with two leading ladies. But apparently he gets slapped by one and kicked by the other, so it isn't as pleasing a prospect as it seems. I can only feel sorry for him; to double in one of Will's plays and still have to count yourself lucky if you get so much as a smile from your counterparts...

This is my first relatively free weekend in a very long time. First it was midterms, then it was T-Nite... But I suppose a few weeks of not having time to think, leave alone eat and sleep, makes you far more appreciative of that time when you get it.

We predicted our quizzes with remarkable accuracy this week. That doesn't mean I studied for them very much; it just means I knew in the morning what iniquities were going to happen in the afternoon, and so the slip of paper behind the glass came as no major surprise.

While I'm on the subject, I have come to the conclusion, after much deliberation, that Hamlet was sane. That I'll probably change my mind in two days is immaterial; at the moment I am decided. He was just brilliant, and a far better actor than the abstracts he had in Mousetrap.

I've always wondered if Agatha Christie had Hamlet in mind when she wrote that play. Being Christie, she may have done, even if only as a decoy. And maybe not that much of a decoy, at that; if you stretch your imagination a bit, there's something in the concept of revenge and dead brothers that may have seemed familiar to the Elizabethan court.

And now, if I can keep my mind made up about Hamlet, and decide once and for all whether Macbeth would have killed Duncan even without the witches teaching him to know himself - both highly unlikely propositions - I will be somewhere.