Lockdown is easing: take to the streets for some Prospero-inspired interactive poetry.
From 12 April, lockdown restrictions in England are eased, one step further. As we all begin to enjoy life out in our communties again, Prospero is offering the chance to reflect on recent times through a series of nationwide interactive poetry walks, free to anyone and safe to enjoy in the outdoors.
It’s a simple, free, safe and easy way to get a quick poetry fix, with verses written by award-winning playwright Phi Porter and performed by a host of young actors from around the world. All you need to take part is a smartphone, headphones and to be in one of the towns and cities currently hosting the walks: Worcester, Pershore, Droitwich, Newquay and Cambridge. More locations will be added soon. Just login into Prospero, select you chosen walk location and follow the on screen-directions.
Your phone will issue you interactive instructions and maps that direct you through the streets, whilst the GPS function of your phone will track your location. When you reach a new setting, your phone will spring into life and recite you a poem that resonates with the setting around you. You can quietly listen and reflect.
No two walks are the same. Whilst the poems are a constant, they each resonate differently with their changing, unique settings. Its an example of our ‘Glocalized’ approach: finding universal, global themes that chime with local contexts.
Any smartphone can access the interactive walks for free.
Whilst each walk is self-contained and independent, together they form part of C&T’s Enquire Within programme, designed to inspire young people to create Explainer Videos using Drama. ‘Enquire Within Upon Everything’ was a bestselling Victorian self-help book, the first of its kind. Over the last year C&T and Prospero have been trying to inspire people today to rekindle that self-help spirit and share their skills and knowledge during these difficult times.
Working with playwright Phil Porter, C&T took each section of the original book as the stimulus for a new poem - Food and Cookery, Gardening and Nature, Household Help, etc - whilst channeling the needs of our modern times. Each poem was recorded by actors from Worcester, Wiltshire, London, Sussex and even Nairobi, reflecting the global experience of the pandemic. However, each walk locates the poems in their own unique settings, meaning they resonate in different ways in different places. Walkers are encouraged to listen and reflect on the environments around them, taking stock of recent times.
We’re fascinated by the idea of “Hauntology’ and how it relates to our recent experience. French philosopher Jacques Derrida coined the term, (“the return or persistence of elements from the past, as in the manner of a ghost”) but for us it echoes through our empty shops, closed theatres, hollow sports venues. It is as if our past, busy, social lives are still haunting us through these now largely empty spaces. We gave this idea to Phil Porter who channeled this sense through his poems. We hope you can hear those echoes too.
Being based in Worcestershire and with ‘Stay at Home’ rules only just lifting, three of our current five walks are in our home County, but as lockdown regulations ease over the coming months, we will locate new Interactive Walks across England. Watch our Twitter feed for updates. Covid-19 has changed all of us and we want our poems to reach as many people as possible. We would love schools and young people in particular to try them out and perhaps join Enquire Within’s work in schools. More resources for this are available on Prospero too. All free.