Task 4

Thinking about a tourism attraction that represents an aspect of nature, the Minack Theatre in Cornwall came to mind as an interesting contrast to Centreparcs:

‘but I don’t want comfort, I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin’ (‘The Savage’, Brave New World)

The open, amphitheater set in the rugged south Cornish coast, with frequent productions of Shakespeare it perhaps offers a space to explore dark, or existential themes. The audience has a unique perspective presented to them.

In many of his works Shakespeare is asking the audience to consider their own existence. A theme of appearance and reality and existential authenticity pervade a play like Hamlet. The quotations ‘To thine own self be true’ and, of course, ‘To be or not to be’ are entwined in British cultural heritage and wider discourse.

Representations of ‘staged authenticity’ often depict an actor holding a skull, which is one of the most enduring images of acting and theatre itself. Considering the scene from Hamlet, the audience is being asked to consider their own mortality:

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
borne me on his back a thousand times;

…Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, 
let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must

come; make her laugh at that.”

The Minack theatre uses nature as a theatrical device, the ruggedness and changing nature of the coastline offering an additional perspective on their mortality! In comparison to the family on the Centreparcs holiday perhaps they return home a little ‘less-deceived’.