The Winter's Tale

Scenes from The Winter's Tale. London: Day and Son, Ltd. [1866] University of Delaware Library

We've both been struck down with the 'flu and have been out of action for a couple of weeks. Guttingly, we had booked tickets for Monday to see The Winter's Tale at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon but were too ill to go. But the evening of the performance happened to be my dad's birthday and so he got a birthday theatre-trip treat this year!

Here's Mum's take on the performance:

"On Monday 18th Feb we were lucky enough to go to Stratford upon Avon to see
Shakespeare’s play The Winters Tale.

The play starts in the court of the King of Sicilia, a very romantic, heady domain created
by the court with the King, Leontes as the central character. He is loud, spoilt and wealthy,
larger than life, the King of Bohemia, Polixenes, is rather quiet in his manner leading the
audience to understand that the two men are opposite sides of the same coin so to speak.

Hermione the wife of Leontes flirts with Polixenes but just as a friend really, Leontes, being
the spoilt man he is has a rush of outrageous jealousy, he will not share his friend with his
wife or his wife with his friend so sparks off a chain of obscene rage and jealousy. He hits
his heavily pregnant wife in the stomach, this actually brought a loud gasp of horror from
the audience, it was powerful drama indeed. Hermoine gives birth to a daughter and this
leads to the King condemning the child to death by sending his servant out to leave the child
in the woods He then tries to have his wife beheaded but she is saved. His only son dies
and Leontes realises just what he has done and plummets into an abyss of his own making,
retreating from the world into his metaphorical ivory tower.

The servant is eaten by a bear but an old shepherd and his son find the baby and soon
discover her provenance.

The producer has set the next part of the play in the north of England during what was known
as ‘Wakes Week’ this is where we are introduced to the Peddler. In a lot of Shakespere
plays he has a very funny bawdy character; this was superbly crafted by Pearce Quigley who
was ‘camp and quirky’ to say the least. Completing the picture of a fete were Morris dancers
and the poor people of Bohemia all having a good time.

The children, abandoned baby Perdita and the son of Polixenes meanwhile had met and fallen
in love. The time had come for the two dysfunctional families, Sicilia and Bohemia to heal
the rift and for Leontes to come down from his metaphorical tower and discover his daughter
and reclaim his friendship with Polixenes. A happy ending was had by all !

The scenery was unusual and used to good effect to portray the power of emotions such as
jealousy hatred and love.

The backdrop was the ever moving sea crashing onto the rocks. A storm at sea was portrayed
to metaphorically show rage and grief in its all-consuming waves. A huge tower came up out
of the floor depicting the ivory tower Leontes put himself into. This was quite spectacular at
the end of the first part as it rose from the floor centre stage. It represented an escape from
the real world."

It sounds wonderful and I'm sorry we missed it.

Adventures in Lomography: Part 3



And finally, the third film - a snowy Sunday in our local park. This time I tried the square format on my Diana Mini.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results of my foray into lomography. Next time I'm going to try a black and white film and experiment with the different formats a bit more. I might try double exposures too - taking two shots over the top of each other by not winding the film on in-between.

The 'lomo rules' say 'be quick; don't think; shoot from the hip' but, actually, I've found that a bit of time and consideration seems to make for better shots. Ultimately though, successful lomography does depend on serendipity. So maybe rule 10 is the only one worth following - 'don't worry about the rules'.

Adventures in Lomography: Part 2

These are from the second film - in Winterbourne Gardens; Hill Close Gardens; the Lickey Hills - taken during late-summer and early-autumn last year. These are all half-frame shots but I don't think I loaded the film correctly as the other half of every frame didn't come out. The rays of sun pouring around the hedge at Winterbourne was pure fluke - but I'm beginning to realise that this is the way with lomography! There are a lot of duff shots but every so often you get lucky. 





Adventures in Lomography: Part 1

Some pics from the first film to be developed - at the Butterfly Farm in Stratford-upon-Avon; apple tree and Ellie in the garden; and a sunny day in Bristol. The Lomo Diana Mini has this great feature where you can take two shots per frame - and I'm very pleased with the results.

Gratification

Started and finished this cabled beret in just three days this week - 'instant knit gratification', as Ruth says. The yarn is Rowan's Cocoon in a shade I've been longing to buy all season. The pattern is from Sirdar and was published in a Woman's Weekly special knitting supplement last winter.

I was hoping to get away with buying just one ball of yarn as it's pretty expensive but had to get a second to complete the last few rows. So now I've got an almost complete ball to use up somehow. I'm tempted to use it to make another cushion but I've been told, 'No more cushions'!

But surely there's room for another one...?