Aoife's Blog: Prologue
January 27, 2011
Prologue
This road is all the stage,
and all the cars and buses metal actors
in an age when the need for speed
has indeed a charge, a spark of time,
the whirl of rhythm and rhyme, a shot
of heroine into the vein of fame,
the same lost love cast out in shame.
Today we stop and ask the way,
each door seven question marks,
the first is on your right. Follow the code
that is the straight road though romance,
that treacherous dance, is full of twists
and turns. For the heart yearns for truth
when lies are all the fashion and passion
but a shadow cast upon a wall, not at all
as you might like it but an echo
of some other forest where girls will be boys
and boys will be girls in a world of concrete trees,
broken toys, stolen keys. So please trust
this map only as you trust yourself. A guide
with much to hide. A journey through what
we remember and what we prefer to forget.
For memory is neither friend nor foe
but just a path that runs in reverse.
And as a rule it's the one that plays the fool
who makes the best sat nav reader so set
aside your fear. Draw near. There will be lions
on the streets of London and serpents in your hair.
Do you dare enter the urban jungle, a theatre
without a roof, dramatic proof that we are everywhere?
I wrote the poem above to try to give a flavour of what I'm hoping to achieve with my residency on Adelaide Road. I'd like this blog to serve as a kind of notebook with work in progress from all those involved in the project. In addition to my own writing, there will be contributions from participants in the creative writing workshops and storytelling activities that I plan to run over the next few months in Camden. There will also be guest bloggers who are invited to discuss certain aspects of the project and to set writing challenges or prompts for creative contributions from anyone who'd like to respond. In this way, I hope that my residency can be rooted in the local but have branches that stretch out over the world.
We are going to use Shakespeare's As You Like It as inspiration. As well as being part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's current London season at the Roundhouse, this pastoral comedy contains the famous monologue that begins 'All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players.' This seems ideal for a project that plans to use a typical London street as its performance space, both in a physical and virtual sense. Adelaide Road runs between Hampstead Theatre and the Roundhouse in the borough of Camden. It was begun in 1830, the year William IV was crowned, and called after his wife, the new Queen Adelaide at a time of revolution in France, Belgium and Poland. As You Like It was most likely written by Shakespeare in 1599, the same year that he wrote Julius Caesar and began writing Hamlet. Nearing the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, 1599 was a year that saw England threatened by invasion from Spain as well as Essex's failure to quell rebellion in Ireland. Written in uncertain times, the play compares the corruption of life at court with the healing purity of life in the forest. As I write this in 2011, US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords struggles for her life after being shot in the head by a gunman who killed six others. Political assassination, intrigue, betrayal, censorship and corruption are as relevant today as they were to Shakespeare.
This is the beginning of a residency that will culminate in a live performance on Saturday 14th May on Adelaide Road. As it develops we will invite guest bloggers to this online space to share their thoughts on the themes. We'll be inviting you to share your thoughts and feedback.
If you are interested in taking part in the workshops, please email aoife.mannix@rsc.org.uk. Workshops are free but booking is essential.
Upcoming workshops:
February 9th 10:30am – 12:30pm – Kentish Town Library
February 28th 7pm to 9pm – Chalk Farm Library
March 9th 10:30am – 12:30pm – Kentish Town Library
March 14th 7pm to 9pm – Chalk Farm Library
by Aoife Mannix
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