Sometimes working here hurts my soul a little bit

[mousme]

Me: *bouncing happily* "I'm going to the Stratford Festival this year!"

Co-worker: "I don't know what that is."

Me: *blank stare* "It's a famous Shakespearian festival. It's held in Ontario every year. Colm Feore is playing Macbeth this year!"

Co-worker: "I don't know who that is."

Me: "Colm Feore?"

Co-worker: "Yeah."

Me: "Oh, well, he's a famous actor. You probably saw him in Bon Cop, Bad Cop."

Co-worker: "Huh. Well, whatever."

Me: "But he'll be playing Macbeth! That's very exciting."

Co-worker: "What's Macbeth?"

Me: "..."

[Silence]

Me: "It's one of Shakespeare's most famous plays?"

Co-worker: "Never heard of it."

Me: "Please tell me you've at least heard of Shakespeare?"

Co-worker: *shrug* "I guess."

Me: *headdesk*

Comments

[diggerlicious.livejournal.com]

Double youch.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it.

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

Who the heck do you work with? Did any of them go to school?

[mousme.livejournal.com]

This one has a university degree in nutrition, so you'd think education was part of the process.

[langolier2408.livejournal.com]

Education does not entail intelligence, just the ability to read and regurgitate...sadly this shows her intelligence level.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Pretty much, although Shakespeare is one of those cultural icons you'd think people would at least *remember*.

[pasley.livejournal.com]

Yikes!! (Sometimes my icon is a little too appropriate.)

Hey---I'm going to be at the Stratford Festival as well, helping out on the annual class trip for the Liberal Arts students. We're going to be seeing Macbeth, Cyrano and The Importance of Being Earnest.

When exactly are you going to be there?

[luvenditti.livejournal.com]

we're going the week of July 17th.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Second week of July.

*bounces happily*

[pasley.livejournal.com]

As you might expect, we're going during the school year, in October.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

My one and only trip to Stratford was with my CEGEP English department. I adored it and would love to go this year to see Colm Feore, but there's very little chance of it, unfortunately.

[kiwano.livejournal.com]

The Importance of Being Earnest is playing at Stratford? I'd totally expect that to play at the Shaw Festival instead.

[hermione-like.livejournal.com]

One of my friends in my grad program is an international student, and not one but several of our coworkers told her that they had looked all over South America but couldn't find her country, and wanted to know where Spain was.

>.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Holy mother of...

There are no words. None.

[hermione-like.livejournal.com]

I know, right? I'm still trying to put my brain together after it exploded upon hearing that.

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

*picks up jaw from the floor*

*drops it again*

Holy crap. Phnee is right. No words.

[joane.livejournal.com]

[grasping at straws] Maybe he/she was messing with you?

... please?

(Or didn't go to school in the west? no real excuse, but it's slightly more understandable...)

[joane.livejournal.com]

(also, ENVY. You have to give a full report when you get back! I miss Stratford *so* much.)

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I will bring my camera and take photos, though not during performances, obviously.

Can you believe I'm 30 years old and have never been to Stratford? I decided to remedy that this year.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

While I'm at it, I keep meaning to ask you what this icon is all about. I feel as though I should know it, but I don't.

[joane.livejournal.com]

It's a screencap from Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. The ambassador from France has just brought Our Boy Hal a gift from the Dauphin: a box full of tennis balls (basically the 'run along and play with your toys, little boy' line). I use it for a few different things - mostly for 'what is this fuckery?' or "wait, say again?" moments, but it's also my only Shakespeare icon at the moment so it pulls double duty.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

No, and no. The only mild excuse she has is that she's a francophone and went to school only in French.

Then again, I also am a francophone and learned about Shakespeare in my French high school, so it's a flimsy excuse at best.

[karine.livejournal.com]

We did Ionesco's version of Macbeth in one of our Cegep French classes. Educated in French, still know about Shakespeare. Missed out on a lot of English Literature, but still know of most of it. Sheesh.

Macbeth with Colm Feore? Holy crap, lucky.

Although...

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

...I was once shocked to learn that a friend who spent many years working in amateur theatre had no idea about the superstitions surrounding Macbeth, calling it "The Scottish Play", etc, etc.

If I had more vacation time, I would go with you. Maybe next year...

Re: Although...

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Next year, if I can get the time off, we'll absolutely make a trip of it.

[sirena73]

and I say again: HA HA WHAT

Hey, is this the same co-worker who didn't know when D-Day was?

[mousme.livejournal.com]

No, it's a different coworker. Can you credit it?

It makes me want to weep.

[kiwano.livejournal.com]

I'd like to pretend that the francophone province factor can be somehow blamed, and that maybe it isn't any more reasonable to expect your random quebecois to be familiar with Shakespears than to expect your random ontarian to be familiar with Moliere.

But still, guh-whu-huh?!?

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Not even. I mean, I sort of qualify for the "random québécois" designation, and I know about Shakespeare. Mind you, my father used to make a game of quoting The Bard when I was a child at home.

His favourite thing was to appear in the doorway at breakfast and declare:

Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
Of the wide world dreaming on things to come,
Can yet the lease of my true love control,
Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.

It was very silly. :D

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

I love your parents.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

My parents are pretty awesome, overall. I believe you're one of the few among my friends who's met both of them.

[kiwano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I'm going to disqualify you from random there. Really, I was already up for disqualifying you from random on the grounds that the knowledge being considered was brought into the convseration by you. I may not be a statistician, but...

Of course, if the coworker in question is an anglo, then I'd still be pretty shocked at their not knowing about Shakespeare.

And yes, your father does sound silly.

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

I've often heard English called "la langue de Shakespeare" here, so at least some francophones must have heard of him.

Oh dear. Train Wrecks R Us.

[le-maistre-e.livejournal.com]

Yeah, gotta say I'm getting the same reaction when I tell my co-workers where I'm spending my second of three vacation weeks. Not knowing what Stratford is or who Colm Feore, yeah OK, somewhat understandable when half of them are recent arrivals to the country, but to not know Shakespeare? Seriously??? No, really, SERIOUSLY???? At least my guys know about Shakespeare...

Wait, is this the *shudder* Twilight fan?

Re: Oh dear. Train Wrecks R Us.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

No, that's yet another coworker.

*sigh*

I'm surrounded.

[rowen26.livejournal.com]

Shakespeare's a character from Doctor Who, right?

:P