la Zona Rosa

As we were coming back to the hotel after a post show dinner last night, we found that la Zona Rosa is a center of nightlife in the city. It was about midnight and we were passing through the western edge of the district. It seemed that there were about four nightclubs per block with music blaring from the open doors and windows. Places that didn't seem to exist in the daytime. Since it was mostly electronica, it didn't entice us older folks, and even the younger members of our troupe didn't stop.

Since it was nearly 2am when we finally got to bed, we were not pleased when they started a sound check for a labour rally, at window rattling decibels, in the street just below our window at 8:30am. Returning at 8:30pm from this evening's show, we caught the last number of the band that was playing the wrap-up of the rally.

The nice thing is that Paseo Reforma was turned over to bikes for most of today and traffic was relatively light all through the neighbourhood.

"Best Before" had its last show here tonight and the audience upheld the high standards of the shows in Mexico. There is now about a six week break before starting the fall tour. We are spending a few more days here in Mexico City before heading home.

Mexico City

If you are familiar with Mexico City, this picture, taken from our hotel window, will tell you where we are staying. This is the Angel Monument. It is the symbol of Mexican Independence, and sits in a circle in the Paseo de la Reforma, one of the city's main thoroughfares, two blocks from our hotel. The strange thing about this circle is that it isn't treated as a traffic circle, but rather as an intersection, so if you want to turn left, you go to the left of the monument, toward oncoming traffic. Somehow, with the traffic lights, it works. Don't try to drive here. (See "traffic tetras" in a previous post.) We found that the Metro is much faster than a taxi.

Our hotel is great. The rooms are very large. Our tour manager says that her room is larger than the Yaletowm apartment that she shares with her partner, but our room is larger. We have a corner suite. The kitchenette is small, but the rest of the suite is the size of our living and dining rooms in Vancouver. The problem is that there is nothing of interest within walking distance.

We are in the financial district and along embassy row. The choices for food here are high end, and not necessarily very good, restaurants or food from street vendors. We favour the vendors, but not all of our group does. We are on the edge of la Zona Rosa, a strange combination of sex shops, fast food places like McDonald's and Burger King, and high fashion stores. After the show ends here on Sunday, and thus our paid for accommodations, we have made arrangements to move into the Historical District for a few days, which will be much more interesting in all ways. (Thanks for the tip Marjorie.)

Speaking of the show, it opened here Friday to a nearly full house. Although it was a slightly older audience than in Pachuca, they were equally enthusiastic. The Mexican audiences have been the best of the tour. I think that Conde is really good at bringing up the level of participation in the Spanish speaking audiences.

mas Pachuca

"Best Before" opened to a full house in Pachuca last night. To be expected since the festival events here are free. It was one of the most enthusiastic audiences the play has had, with lots of vocal input from the audience. Conde did a great job I was told, though I could only go by his tone and the audience reaction because I didn't understand the Spanish. The audience seemed to be mostly bilingual because they laughed at the right times before the Spanish supertitles appeared on the screen, and also laughed at the ad-libs.

Pachuca again

I decided to add one more image of the dance in the Plaza Juarez. The picture I posted yesterday showed the delicacy of the dance. this one shows the strength. The company, beau geste, is from France and they are staying in our hotel. We had an interesting discussion with Philippe, the dancer, at dinner last night. They have been doing this piece for five years.

Pachuca

I met Ellen's plane in Mexico City as planned, but the trip to Pachuca didn't work out too well. It was Friday night and a storm had caused some local flooding. A trip that should have taken an hour and a half took nearly five, mostly just to get out of Mexico City. The best description of the traffic, supplied by Brady, was "traffic tetras". Any time a space opened up on the road, it was filled by a vehicle, without regard for which way the vehicle was going or where the driver wanted to go.

But we are here now and enjoying ourselves. Traveling with Ellen, the first thing we did was scout out the markets, and they are everything you would expect of markets in a Mexican city of 220,000.

"Best Before" had rehearsals today as they are breaking a new character, Conde, who will provide a Spanish speaking presence in place of the characters played by Bob and Arjan at other venues. The show opens a two day run here on Monday before moving to Mexico City.



This is the view from the front door of our hotel in Pachuca, looking across the Plaza Independencia.

We saw an amazing performance in the Plaza Juarez. The Transversales 2010! Festival that "Best Before" is a part of likes to combine art and real life. "Best Before" combines actors on stage with a video game that the audience participates in. In "Transports Exceptionnels" a dancer performs a pas-de-duex with a construction excavator. Since the machine's windows are reflectorized, you don't see the operator, so the dancer is dancing with the machine. The machine lifts and swings him. (In this picture it has just set him down in a handstand.) Other times the dancer seems to control the machine with his hands. Since Ellen is familiar with digger operators both good and bad, she was most impressed with the precision and delicacy exhibited by this operator. It was beautiful. You will never see this performed in Vancouver. There is no public space large enough.



My favorite translation. This notice greeted us at our hotel.

More about London

The play went very well in London. The audiences were very much into the concept of the game as part of theatre. People commented on how thought-provoking the questions were. They were also much more into singing "God Save the Queen" than the audience in Cork had been.

Getting around London was a breeze with the wonderfully efficient underground system. Although it frequently involved long underground walks to get from one line to another, there was good signage and trains ran at about 2 or 3 minute intervals. Except at the height of rush hour, we nearly always got seats.

Due to the global recession and other fiscal problems in Europe, travel in Europe is now affordable. Our last time in Europe and Britain, things cost so much that we avoided calculating the price of things in dollars. Since then, the Euro and the Pound have dropped by about 40% against the dollar. In Berlin, prices seemed about the same as Vancouver and while England and Ireland were a bit more expensive, there were bargains to be had.

We have returned to North America, separately. Since the next stop is Mexico, I flew to Houston where I am staying at Gabe's apartment, although he is not here now. Bad timing. Ellen is in Vancouver for a few days before we will meet in Mexico City for the next leg.

London

Poutine and ball hockey in Trafalgar Square. It's Canada Day

Ellen has now made her debut on the London stage to the thunderous applause of an enthusiastic crowd. We had a couple days off and did some touring around. While the Tate Galleries, both the original and the modern were interesting, we had an especially good time at the Brixton Market, where we experienced the sights and sounds of what London is now.

More about Cork

Ellen and Ken on a bridge over the River Lee, or is it the canal?

Cork is a lovely city, with the central business district on an island in the Lee River. While standing looking at the waterway, I was given directions to turn around and go until I got to the river, then turn right to get to the theatre. It seems that one channel is called the river and the other is the canal, though they look the same. An Irish joke to confuse the tourists?

The downtown is pleasantly walkable once you learn the way, but the main street meanders, so you have to know where you are in order to know where you are going. There are several streets and alleys devoted to pedestrians during the day. The Old English Market is like having the Granville Island Public Market in the center of town, but with 75% of the stalls being butchers or fishmongers. Quite the experience.




The street signs, when you could find them, were in English and Gaelic, as were the signs on many public buildings. All commercial signs were in English. We did hear Gaelic spoken on the street and in the pubs though, and Irish TV had a mostly Gaelic language station. We could watch the World Cup soccer games in Gaelic or English.