Opium Dens

Links to film extracts involving opium dens (to be taken with a pinch of salt)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwnw-lsyQYA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqrBGk-Qrqo&feature=related


Shows exactly how to do opium...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdCExHcEUP8&feature=related


Opium pipes:
An opium pipe is a pipe designed for the vaporization and inhalation of opium. True opium pipes allow for the drug to be vaporized while being heated over a special oil lamp known as an opium lamp. It is thought that this manner of "smoking" opium began in the seventeenth century when a special pipe was developed that vaporized opium instead of burning it. [1]

The configuration of the typical opium pipe consists of a long stem, a ceramic pipe-bowl, and a metal fitting, known as the "saddle", through which the pipe-bowl plugs into the pipe-stem. The pipe-bowl must be detachable from the stem due to the necessity to remove the bowl and scrape its insides clean of opium ash after several pipes have been smoked. The stems of opium pipes were usually made from bamboo, but other materials were used such as ivory, silver and jade, to name a few. Pipe-bowls were typically some type of ceramic, including Yixing clay and blue and white porcelain. Sometimes opium pipe-bowls were carved from more valuable materials such as jade.

Because of its design, the opium pipe needed an opium lamp in order to function. The lamp was as highly specialized as the pipe, and was designed to channel just the right amount of heat upon the pipe-bowl so that the opium would vaporize and allow the smoker to inhale the intoxicating vapors.



Really good quote from the Sherlock Holmes story, The Sign of Four...
Holmes justifies his recourse to recreational drugs to Watson in these words: “I find it… so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action [i.e. whatever damage it might be doing him] is a matter of small moment… I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.”


Thomas De Quincey's descriptions of opium from his Confessions of an English Opium-eater...
The Pleasures
"Oh! just, subtle, and might opium! that to the hearts of poor and rich alike, for the wounds that will never heal, and for 'the pangs that tempt the spirit to rebel,' bringest an assuaging balm; eloquent opium! that with thy potent rhetoric stealest away the purposes of wrath; and to the guilty man, for one night givest back the hopes of his youth, and hands washed pure of blood...."

De Quincey describes the long walks he took through the London streets under the drug's influence:
"Some of these rambles led me to great distances; for an opium-eater is too happy to observe the motions of time. And sometimes in my attempts to steer homewards, upon nautical principles, by fixing my eye on the pole-star, and seeking ambitiously for a north-west passage, instead of circumnavigating all the capes and headlands I had doubled in my outward voyage, I came suddenly upon such knotty problems of alleys, such enigmatical entries, and such sphinx's riddles of streets without thoroughfares, as must, I conceive, baffle the audacity of porters, and confound the intellects of hackney-coachmen."

Hope this helps
Charlotte xx

Freak show links

Hey all!

Here are some links about freak shows, circus in victorian times...enjoy!

http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/history/shows/freaks.html
http://listverse.com/2009/08/29/top-10-creepy-aspects-of-victorian-life/
http://www.victorianlondon.org/entertainment/freakshows.htm
http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/B/bornfreak/show1.html
http://www.cambriapress.com/cambriapress.cfm?template=4&bid=351

Josie xx

Marionette Movements

Links to help learn how to move as puppets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Y2PUjp7AY&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgUT118dDjo&feature=related

This is amazing and so helpful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke1pEordbRk&feature=related

Charlotte xx

Whatever

Hatty practicing blog

moving forward

Hey :) am very encouraged now by the extra's I've seen happening outside of sessions even just today! Don't forget your research coz you'll need it to help fill out your character histories or 'back stories' as your developing the realistic scenes.

Victorian Speech!

Everybodies gotta practise talking like a Eliza Doolittle! :D

Cockney deviated from Standard Speech mainly through pronunciation. As observed in numerous novels by Charles Dickens, the lower classes adapted to the cockney style. This includes,

•Dropping the “h’s” before words such as “head” to sound “ ‘ead.”
•Swallowing vowels such as “e” in “fowld” as opposed to “fowled.”
•Slurring vowels to produce “I believe yer” as opposed to “I believe you.” This later became native to Manchester and Liverpool, areas north of London.
•Most prominently “t’s” were replaced by “uh” to transform “butter” to “bu’er.”
•The “v’s” were replaced with “w’s” such as in “werry” as opposed to “very.”

Basically, try watching 'My Fair Lady' and pay particular attention to how Eliza speaks before Henry Higgins gets hold of her. It'd also be a good idea to watch this film as it is generally based around speech. Although the film was based in Edwardian period. The language is not very disimilar to what we would be speaking in the Victorian era.

Standard Speech
The aristocrats and gentry spoke Standard Speech yet still formed their own slang. However, this slang was not pervasive to the English language, as cockney was thought to be, but instead was primarily regional and an upper class prerogative.

•Members of the upper class concentrated on correct pronunciation.
•The term “gentleman” was thought to be too inappropriate and was “passed down to the lower classes” (Phillipps 8). Thus “ladies and gentlemen” was replaced with “ladies and men” (Phillipps 8). This replacement was justified because the word “gentleman” created an impression of unctuousness which was unfavorable. It thus became too informal of a term to use amongst such high caliber.
•Speech was very much characterized by “slow, drawling speech” in order to express an attitude of laziness and languor: an effortless attempt at perfection (Chapman 172).
•Some upper class slang replaced “r” with “w” as opposed to the v/w exchange in cockney. For example, “Gwacious Heavens!” (Chapman 172).
•Prominent upper class language is usually metaphorical, expressed with confidence and vitality to convey the upper class privilege.

Occupational Speech (Middle Class)

•Many slang terms were invented by University students, such as Oliphant’s example in Phoebe Junior. Clarence Copperhead has been “plucked” or has been expelled from Oxford. Sir Robert conveys a strong dislike to the usage of this slang, a characteristic of his upper class status
•It was said that one was going “up” to Oxford or Cambridge and going “down” to London (Phillipps 44).
•Occupations such as schoolmasters, legal positions and doctors all required slight usage of technical terms incorporated into speech. For example, in Our Mutual Friend, the narrator portrays that Mortimer Lightwood is an intelligible man of his occupation who can say the word ‘affidavit,’ yet Rogue Riderhood mispronounces it as an “Alfred David” (Dickens 12).

Therefore, language in the Victorian era was important in ranking members of classes and occupations. Language had the potential to assess and reflect upon one’s regional, educational, occupational and family background.

I found all this information here :
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/agunn/teaching/enl3251_spring2005/omf/KATARIA.htm
It seems quite useful!
Try it oooooout.
Tish x

Punch and Judy Script

Just a little something i knocked up to work on. Feel free to make any alterations you wish.

Act 1, scene 1


(Enter Judy)
Judy: Oh hello children, I did not see you there, I’m Judy
Children: Hello Judy
Judy: I’ve just made this lovely warm pie for my husband Punch. Would you like to try some?
Children: Yehhh
Judy: (Judy walks forward and drops the pie) Oh woops, I seem to have dropped this lovely pie. Mr. Punch will be very angry, don’t tell him will you children?
Children: Nooo…
Judy: I said, you won’t tell him will you children?
Children: Nooo!
Judy: Very well, shhh, I’ll just go and get a mop to clean it up with
(Exit Judy, Enter Punch)
Punch: (singing) My name is Punchinello
All dressed in red and yellow
I’m such a clever fellow
Rootitootitooit!
Rootitootitooit!
How de do de? I’m Mr. Punch
Children: Hello Mr. Punch
Punch: (Looks around) Where’s my wife Judy? Judy! Judy!
Judy: What is it Mr. Punch?
Punch: Judy how 'bout a kiss? Kissy! Kissy! Kissy!
Judy: No, Mr. Punch, you can’t have a kiss
Punch: I want a kiss now! You know how angry I get if I don’t get my kissy.
Judy: I know Mr. Punch, I know. Alright then but first I must blow my nose.
(Judy blows her nose on her apron. They then kiss in an exaggerated manner, spinning in circles etc.)
Judy: That’s enough, Mr. Punch
Punch: Where’s my pie then? (Directs audience) Do you know where my pie is?
Children: Nooo..
Punch: (Points to individual person in the audience) Do you know what happened to my pie?
Charlotte: It’s on the floor
Punch: Judy! Why is my pie on the floor!?
Judy: I’m sorry Mr. Punch I dropped it by accident.
Punch: That’s a very bad thing to do Judy. (Takes mop from Judy’s hand and starts hitting her with it.)
Judy: Ow! Ow! Ow! ( Judy moves to downstage left whilst being hit by Punch and finally slides off stage)
(Enter constable, Punch hides mop behind his back)
Constable: Ello. Ello. Ello. What’s going on ‘ere then? Mr. Punch have you been hittin’ Judy again?
Punch: Nooo..
Constable: Has he been hitting Judy, children?
Chidlren: Yeess
Punch: No, I haven’t
Constable: I’m sorry Mr. Punch I’m going to have to write this down in my notebook.
Judy: (Pops up) Help me, Constable
Punch: (Hits her back down again before Constable turns around)
Children: Laugh
Judy: (Pops up again)
Children: Look Constable look!
Punch: (Hits her back down before the Constable turns around)
(Repeat)
Constable: Right that’s all written up. Don’t let it happen again please, Mr. Punch. Do you promise?
Punch: (Nods)
Constable: Cheerio then.
Judy: Ow. that wasn’t a very nice thing to do Mr. Punch. (Babie cries) Now look you’ve gone and woken the baby up, I must go and look after him.
Punch: Hehehehe (Punch laughs)
Judy: (Quickly returns and thrusts the baby into Punch’s arms) Here you are, Mr. Punch, I want you to look after the baby, I must go and make another pie. Make sure you don’t wake him.
(Exit Judy)
Punch: (Puts baby down downstage left and goes back over to downstage right) Walky, Walky, Walky. ( He looks at the baby but it doesn’t move)
Punch: Walky, walky, walky (He walks toward the baby clapping his hands, When the baby doesn't respond he does it again this time walking along the play board with his hands as if to show the baby what to do.)
Punch: Walky, walky, walky
Punch: Stupid baby! ( Punch kicks it to the other side of the stage and it starts crying)
Punch: Where’s the baby? Where’s the baby? (He picks it up) What? What a noisy baby! (He starts banging it on the stage) Quiet baby! Noisy, naughty baby!
Children: (laugh)
Judy: (From offstage) Have you woken the baby, Mr. Punch?
Punch: (Throws the baby into the crowd where one of the children catches it)
That’s the way to do it! Roottitoottitooit!
Judy: (Enter Judy looking for the baby. She looks around the side, over the edge and even up in the air. Punch is looking very sheepish at the side of the booth.)
Judy: Mr Punch. Where is the baby? What’s happened to the baby?
Punch: He was such a noisy baby
Judy: Mr. Punch, what have you done with the baby?
Punch: He went walky,walky, walky and fell out the window. [Punch uses his hands to mime the walky action along the stage.]
Punch: Where’s my pie?
Judy: It’s just here Mr. Punch (Judy reaches behind her and has another pie)
Punch: (Smashes the pie to the floor) I don’t want pie anymore. I want sausages.
Children: (laugh)
(Punch and Judy exit with Punch hitting and kicking Judy)