Yarn Along: Coriolanus and Mending

Longtime readers will know that I have a long-standing love affair with Shakespeare, and I find that when things look bleak, his work always has something to say to me.  The National Theater in London decided to offer some of its catalog of filmed live performances in limited free YouTube runs to raise money for the arts since the theaters remain closed.  

Last Thursday, 6/4, Coriolanus opened for a limited one-week run.  I've seen this (filmed) production before, and highly recommend it.  The Ralph Fiennes film version is also excellent, but I really like Josie Rourke's work and style, and the stripped down sets in the Donmar Warehouse pared with the minimalist costuming really let the words shine.  It's a very muscular performance.  We showed the play to the boys this weekend, and it was surprisingly resonant.  

Coriolanus is a play about a military hero who returns to Rome after an unlikely victory over northern invaders, and is pushed by his monstrous mother into a political position he neither desires nor is well-suited for.  He is a man consumed by anger against his enemies, who seeks revenge at every opportunity; the pivotal moment he learns to temper his rage and seek peace, he suffers greatly for it.  

It is also a play about the power and fickleness of the mob, and how things get twisted all out of shape by passions run amok.  There were so many lines that stayed with me, particularly the one about Coriolanus' all-consuming quest for revenge.  After Coriolanus is banished from Rome and joins forces with his former enemy to sack Rome, the Roman senator Menenius says:  "This Martius [Coriolanus] is grown from man to dragon: he has wings; he’s more than a creeping thing."  

The free YouTube access will end this Thursday, so watch it while you can!  It is well worth the time.

In the middle of all that is going on in the world (and indeed, continuing in my own city), the small intimate details of daily goings on continue to color the tapestry of life.  School is officially out.  We had our last homeschool work on Friday, Piglet had his virtual graduation into Logic school (a big deal in the classical curriculum), and are now on "summer" break.  Whatever that means this year.  I'm sad for all that Piglet missed, but so so grateful for all the ways the school tried to celebrate the kids' transition to Logic school as best they could.  Mostly, I'm just relieved to not be teaching Ponchik (aka Captain Pokey Pants) right now.

I still can't write, because: lockdown (on yellow phase since Friday, but not that different from the red phase), so I've been sketching and coloring.  The above is a little composition I worked on last week.  I have a few other pencil sketches ready to color, but have other things I need to do this week before I get to that.  It is creatively satisfying, I'll say that.

I've been knitting a little here and there, but not with any real concentration.  I set aside my wool work for some linen yarn I had in the bin, leftover from the Gemini.  I decided to make a little summer shawl with it and am using the same Simply pattern as I was using on the tonal sock yarn from last month.  I don't love knitting with this yarn (as evidenced by how long it took me to finish the Gemini) but I want to use it up, and the color works well with my summer palette.

 My reading has been all over the place, but I finally cracked Kate Davies' Wheesht last week, and am finding much to ponder in it.  As with so much of her work, she manages to shine a light on things I had not considered before, to reframe ways of doing, and to think differently about the world.  All to say: I'm enjoying it immensely. 

The first chapter is about mending, so I present: my mending pile.  So.much.darning.  My only observation about the mending chapter is that while it is a good thing to mend, and to find meaning in darning, and creativity in the process, there is also a lot of dull drudgery in keeping up with mending for six people, three of whom are extremely hard on socks.  But still.  There is something to mending that which is broken, both physically and metaphysically, and one can inform the other.

This passage from the second chapter spoke to me as well:

It was a hard choice between her book and Who Fears Death as my next read, but decided Kate's work was worth a ponder at the moment.  Yuri Slezkine's In the House of Government just showed up this morning, but as it is a doorstop of a book, I think it will take some time to get through.   

We celebrated Pentecost yesterday, and the house has green leaves stuck various places, plus we had a small kitchen garden of edibles installed last week.  It is good for my soul to see green things growing.

 

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along.