Today at Mary Arden’s Farm we saw a swordfight demonstration. I really enjoyed hearing about the different style of swords and techniques used during duels since I have absolutely no background knowledge on that subject. Relating the techniques to Romeo and Juliet also made the information in the presentation seem much more relevant. I definitely think it would enhance the demonstration to reenact more fights in Shakespeare’s plays. I personally would love to see Edgar and Edmund ‘s duel from King Lear. While I found this show informative, I found talking to one of the demonstrators after the performance much more interesting. He told us his thoughts on the Henry IV performance from the night before and commented on the fireworks tribute for Shakespeare’s birthday.
I found both of his comments rather surprising. While I found the actor who portrayed Prince Hal the most successful role in the play (not very shocking since I love the character of Hal/Henry V), he felt that Mistress Quickly had the best performance. Thinking about this comment made me realize how easy it is to overlook lesser characters when seeing a play for the first time. I think it’s really easy to get caught up in the bigger characters and scenes, when in fact a smaller part of the play can have just as much of an impact on the overall production. He also seemed unimpressed by the fireworks and lights for Shakespeare’s 450th birthday.
While the majority of our group found this tribute impressive and grandiose, he thought that a different sort of gesture could have paid better tribute to Shakespeare. He felt that something more English would have celebrated this Englishman better than a fireworks/light show (he pointed out that the Chinese originally created fireworks).
I still think that the show became a great way to attract a large group of people to celebrate Shakespeare and his birthday. I also found it very fun and entertaining. Although, after hearing his view I have to wonder if this display served more for the tourism and as a source of advertisement than for the celebration of the man himself.