• The post you are reporting:
   
  just got this in from steve walker - assistant ranger at samphire hoe,(photos to follow).
  
  
  King Lear came to Samphire Hoe to celebrate Halloween
  
  As part of Kent Coastal Week last Saturday volunteers and staff at
  Samphire Hoe put on a Halloween extravaganza called King Lear struts
  his stuff. It was something a little bit different for Halloween: a
  version of William Shakespeare's King Lear. It was adapted especially
  for performance at Samphire Hoe by local actor Tony Clark.
  
  60 people braved the dramatic weather to see the St Margaret's Players
  perform this family friendly version of this tragic play. The staff at
  Samphire Hoe made the props including a hovel, some stocks and even
  some gallows.
  
  The play is ideal for Halloween as much of the action takes place
  during a raging storm and many deaths take place during the
  performance including: a hanging, a poisoning, a suicide, a death from
  duelling and eventfully King Lear dies of a broken heart. A
  particularly gory part of the story happens when poor old Gloucester
  has his eyes poked out.
  
  The children who came had lots of fun being unruly Knights by playing
  conkers, pelting Kent in the stocks. Later on they were chasing after
  Gloucester's gouged eyes and joining in the battle scene when there
  were loud cannon fire explosions.
  
  Steve Walker assistant ranger at Samphire Hoe said that "it was
  amazing that so many people came out as the weather forecast was
  awful. Earlier in the day the event nearly got cancelled as it was
  freezing cold with strong gusty winds, the skies opened and it poured
  down. During King Lear's madness it rained a little which only added
  to the drama with a bright rainbow arching over the action".
  
  At the time that William Shakespeare was writing King Lear he was said
  to have travelled regularly through Dover. It was his familiarity with
  the cliffs that may well have inspired his descriptions. To this day
  the first cliff on the West side of Dover is known as Shakespeare
  Cliff.
  
  Samphire Hoe was named by a local English teacher Gillian Janaway
  after Shakespeare's description in King Lear of the deadly trade of
  the Samphire gatherers who risked their lives collecting the plant on
  the cliffs above.
  
  To find out more about Samphire Hoe, King Lear and the channel there
  is a walk around the site at 2.00pm this Friday meet at the site
  office.

Report Post

Your Name

Reason