You know that poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge? No? Well, it was published in 1798 and has had all sorts of impact on popular culture since then, including lines like, “Water, water every where / nor any drop to drink” as well as all sorts of symbolism with people having albatrosses round their necks. I also uses words like ‘eftsoons’ and ‘quoth’. Follow the links and you can find out all about it.
The Ancient Mariner, as he may have appeared*
Back in the realms of what this has to do with anything, fun-time big-band folk orchestra Bellowhead will be doing two performances of an exclusive production based on the epic poem at the Southbank Centre, where the jolly bunch are artists in residence. They will be joined by 150 schoolchildren from Southwark and Lambeth councils who will presumably be doing some acting or singing or something (the press release doesn’t make it too clear).
It takes place at 12pm and 3pm on Saturday 4th July at the Southbank Centre in London. It will cost everyone’s favourite price; free! More details can be found on the Southbank Centre’s website.
A dead albatross
*As much as i’d love to take credit for that picture, it’s actually courtesy of www.tonyynot.com. (Except for the dodgy background editing that was me. I wouldn’t have been able to fit the speech bubble in otherwise.)
