ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

A Winter’s Tale

In the middle of Shakespeare’s enigmatic late play, The Winter’s Tale, the young prince asks his mother what kind of story she would like him to tell.  “As merry as you will”, she replies, and in the event her words also provided  a very apt description of the  Advanced Higher trip to the Royal Shakespeare production of the play at The Roundhouse in London. 

Like everyone planning an end of term journey this year, we couldn’t be sure we would actually get away, so it was with mingled excitement and relief that the two FVI classes and accompanying English teachers slipped out of Waverley Station early on the morning of 15th December, during a very brief respite between heavy snowfalls.  

Once we arrived in London, there was just time to fit in a visit to the British Library where we were lucky to catch the Evolving English exhibition.  Pupils seemed particularly impressed by Jane Austen’s writing desk, an eleventh century manuscript of Beowulf  and Scott’s Antarctic diary, still open at the last page with its tragic account of Captain Oates’ disappearance.  Then it was on to Swiss Cottage, an Italian meal (with ice cream proving irresistible for Mr Russell and James Hunter, despite the freezing conditions) and the excited buzz of the foyer at The Roundhouse. 

Expectations were high, especially when we saw the wonderful set, with its angled dinner table set for a royal feast, and the towering bookshelves that were to collapse so shockingly at the end of Act III, scattering hundreds of books and loose pages across the stage.  It turned out to be a play about strong women – and this was a revelation for pupils who had only previously seen Antony Sher’s mesmerising performance as Leontes on dvd in the classroom.  Hermione, Paulina and Perdita made us all think again about what Shakespeare has to say to us about families, and how power can get abused within them, and how people, even after many years, can be transformed. 

Early the following morning we headed across the city to The Globe, emerging from the Tube to walk down Clink Lane and past Borough Market, with glimpses of Southwark Cathedral above the roof tops.  Ours was the first tour of the day and as the great wooden doors of the empty theatre swung open, it seemed momentarily strange not to find Elizabethan crowds inside, filling the painted galleries and staircases and yard.  It’s an astonishingly beautiful space, even under winter skies, and most of us came away determined to make a return visit, this time to see a performance.

We were fortunate travellers on the way home too.  On the train north there was plenty of banter but also much to think about as pupils and teachers mulled over aspects of a production that brought home to all of us the sheer magic of theatre.

KM