Ballerinas at the O2

Being J's wife is really starting to pay off - we got tickets to watch Romeo & Juliet being performed by the Royal Ballet Company at the O2 arena this past Saturday!

I've heard a lot about the O2 arena, but this was our first time visiting. The arena is right by the prime meridian, so there are lines on the ground indicating mini time zones, which J thought was pretty cool. The entrance to the arena is quite nice with a standing waterfall feature made of marble and greenery, and there are also sidewalk fountains that look like fun on a hot day. It was windy and raining, so I gave the fountains a wide berth, and we quickly made our way into the arena.

The O2 Arena from afar

Lucky us, we had suite tickets so we got to bypass all of queues for the regular folks, and we faced some stiff security to get to our box. Once we got to our suite, a very nice bartender came by to take our drink orders and we settled into our very comfortable seats to enjoy the show. The arena is huge - it's more suitable for a major sporting event, and I couldn't imagine that many people wanted to watch a ballet based on one of Shakespeare's classics, but it did manage to fill up quite a bit!

One of J's colleagues showed up with his wife, so it ended up being a double date. It was nice for J since he ended up not being the only one to nod off several times during the first half of the show. Watching the two of them was like watching a pair of bobble-head dolls as they struggled to stay awake during all the dancing and pirouetting. I didn't know who to watch - the ballerinas or J and his colleague jerking awake every few minutes.

The second half of the show definitely picked up the pace, and J managed to stay awake to enjoy the rest of the ballet. I actually enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. The production and the costumes were really well done, but I wasn't such a big fan of the musical score. I think we also enjoyed it more because we knew the story and could follow along (we did struggle to remember some bits of it but we managed). All in all, a great Saturday afternoon!