Buckland Abbey

[bunn]

Buckland Abbey is Sir Frances Drake's old pad.  Well, it was a Cistercian monastery first, then it belonged to the Grenvilles, then they sold it to Drake. Eventually it ended up with the National Trust, who decided this weekend, they would have a Shakespeare festival and do Elizabethan Things.  It was terrifyingly hot today (32 degrees!)  but there were trees and things to hide under. And it was all free!  Well, free if you are a National Trust member anyway.

My mum inspects some heritage roses.   I'm sure I've got these same roses in my garden and I can't remember for anything what they are called now.  They have a great scent though they are not a very tidy shape.

There were some Tudor dancing people.  I was wearing about 85% fewer clothes than them, standing in the shade and eating icecream, and I was hot.  How these people didn't simply boil to death, I can't imagine.



Prospero and Caliban try gamely to pretend that a a tempest is raging, surrounded by lounging tourists.


I did take a couple more photos of the play but I only had my phone camera, and it was a big space (and we were lurking in a corner in the shade...).

The actors were in full sun, and yet somehow managed to leap about in an exhausting-looking manner.    They were impressively audible too, specially the girl playing Miranda.   My Mum was slightly worried by the fact that the whole cast, including the King of Naples and his son, were in their teens or early 20s.  I can't say it troubled me.  The King of Naples and his son did seem a tad interchangeable, but Prospero did a great job of appearing older than he really was, and had a faint but pleasing suggestion of Ewan Mcgregor doing Obi-wan Kenobi about him.  Trinculo and Stephano were particularly good in their drunken scenes too.  Acting to a scattered audience in such a big space must be quite hard but they pulled it off well.

More incredibly-clothed Tudor dancers outside the Cistercians' Great Barn.   It is a Great Barn too - it's medieval rather than Elizabethan and it is *fecking enormous*.  This is just one end of it.


And for some reason there were sheep made of wire mesh here.  I like the way the one at the front looks very quizzical: Why AM I here? it is thinking. Why am I made of wire mesh?  What is all of this about?


I was so exhausted by all the sitting in the shade eating icecream, spectating and gently chatting, that I went home and fell asleep for about 3 hours.  The cast of 'The Tempest', on the other hand, were giving a spectacular display of Tudor duelling as we left - before going straight into ' A Midsummer Night's Dream' that afternoon.  Was I EVER that young, and that energetic...? Whew.  Oh, this was the company. Would definitely go to see again, although I am not sure I am up to watching four plays in a weekend.

Comments

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Ooh that looks like fun! The theatre company sounds great. And I like your thoughts on the wire sheep.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It was a lot of fun - I'm so glad I kicked my arse into gear and actually got my act together to go. I'll be looking out for it next year.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

When I did Tudor re-enactment, it was actually surprisingly cool in the costume. We'd get tourists coming around wearing next to nothing, skin like a lobster, sweating like a... um, whatever the thing is that proverbially sweats, and looking absolutely sweltering. Whereas I was wearing a white linen headcovering to protect me from the sun, and a thin white shift to cover the neck and chest. The thick voluminous skirt doesn't make you hot, since it doesn't touch your skin; it just acts like an enormous 360 degree sun shade that goes with you wherever you go.

Mind you, I spent most of my time inside a nice cool stone-built house, drawing and writing. Those labouring in the fields might have other views.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Prospero's shirt was wringing wet when he took off his big coat at the end of the play, so he at least was hot. But I think the players' costumes were a lot less authentic than the dancers.

There were some less elaborately garbed ladies in plain white dresses with headcoverings about - they did look comfortably cool.

But I'm not sure about those huge velvet hats and heavy cloaks? I put on my cotton-lined linen hat with the big sunflower that morning, but I could feel my head getting warm immediately, so swapped it for a better-ventilated straw hat.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I was middle class, so didn't get to wear a big velvet hat, only a white linen headcovering, so I guess I struck lucky there. Pellinor wore all-over black and spent his time outside in the sunshine being learned but dodgy, so he might have a different opinion about the swelteringness of Tudor clothes. Although, given that he is voluntarily spending today charging around in full armour whopping monsters on the head, after spending all of yesterday dancing, his tolerance is clearly different from mine.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Probably I should have asked. But it seemed cruel to do so if, as I thought, they actually were hot:

Idiot The First : Those clothes look hot. Are they hot?

Gently Steaming Costumed Person: YES. THEY ARE HOT.

Idiot The First (triumphantly): I thought so!

***embarrassment***

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I can assure you that you would definitely not have been Idiot The First, but more like Idiot The One Hundred And Ninety-Fifth. We couldn't even express an opinion on the relative hotness of Tudor and modern summer attire, since we had to pretend we actually were Tudors, and express bewilderment whenever tourists drew our attention to anything modern.

Idiot The 194th: Those clothes look hot. I bet you wish you were wearing shorts!

Politely Bewildered Tudor: I know not what these "shorts" may be.

Idiot The 194th: These are shorts.

Weary Tudor: No doubt they have been newly introduced from Italy. I am shocked to see an Englishman wearing such indecent attire!

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

Looks a great day. We had a lovely visit there a while ago, though no tudor persons were about. They do look rather over dressed for the weather!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Well, if you come again and fancy meeting for a cream tea or something, give me a shout. I have discovered a shortcut bridge over the River Tavy that means it is only 10 miles away, so I think I may go again soon...

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

It all looks great fun for a spring day but not for a sweltering one in July. I feel too hot just looking at those clothes!