Today was kind of a lazy day but I loved it. I was going to go to Portobello Road but woke up a little late and just decided to stay instead of rushing to get out the door (and i've already been and can always go again). I did some blogging, unpacked, and chatted online. By lunch time some girls were back and wanted to have a picnic in Hyde Park and read Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well", which was perfect since I hadn't started and we have to have a response posted on it by Sunday morning. Again, I will rave on how much I LOVE Hyde Park...I could go there everyday for the rest of my life and be completely happy. It was a perfect day in London, the weather was sunny with a breeze and I couldn't help but nap halfway through my reading laying out in the grass...and let's be honest, even when I am awake I get distracted because I love to people watch :)
After that we had to leave to travel into outer London to see a play at Little Angel Theatre. Our entire class including the professors were there. It was a puppet version of The Tempest. Not hand puppets. There were actors as well as larger puppets controlled by actors. It was really great and I wish I had pictures to do it justice but they will never allow that in any of the Theatres. There were like maybe a total of seven people playing all of the parts, so each had about two roles. And all of them acted, sang, controlled puppets, and played instruments! Talk about renaissance people. It was a small theatre and it made all that much better and more intimate. I enjoyed reading The Tempest, but seeing it live just adds to the whole experience and concretes it further in my mind. Here are my favorite excerpts from the play:
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
(Prospero, Act IV, Scene I)
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.
(Prospero, Epilogue)
After that we had to leave to travel into outer London to see a play at Little Angel Theatre. Our entire class including the professors were there. It was a puppet version of The Tempest. Not hand puppets. There were actors as well as larger puppets controlled by actors. It was really great and I wish I had pictures to do it justice but they will never allow that in any of the Theatres. There were like maybe a total of seven people playing all of the parts, so each had about two roles. And all of them acted, sang, controlled puppets, and played instruments! Talk about renaissance people. It was a small theatre and it made all that much better and more intimate. I enjoyed reading The Tempest, but seeing it live just adds to the whole experience and concretes it further in my mind. Here are my favorite excerpts from the play:
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
(Prospero, Act IV, Scene I)
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.
(Prospero, Epilogue)
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| View from where we were laying :) |
a spring day in London :)
ReplyDeleteif you love Hyde Park, you are really gonna looooove the Stray and Valley Gardens in Harrogate. They are so beautiful. Can't wait for you to see them!
ReplyDeletei can't wait either! :D
ReplyDeletei love that poem insert. which one of shakespeare's plays is that from? I also LOVED LOVED LOVED Hyde Park. It is one of my absolute favorite places in the world and I have been around ;)
ReplyDeletewell my dear audrey, the title says tempest...so that would be the play it's from haha
ReplyDelete