The entertaining theatre company providing joyful music, song and shouting are called The Lion's Part and were brought together by a shared love of "verse and music old and new, celebration, costume, the seasons - above all, theatre". Their role in Borough Market's Apple Day was included within their own celebration, October Plenty, "a collective celebration of the seasons, weather and food, in a public place, with access to everyone...(that) happens whatever the weather." Happily today's weather was lovely. Their earlier procession, starting at The Globe, featured the Corn Queene (that's where the fruit and veg came from), the Berry Man - their Autumn incarnation of the Green Man - and that time-honoured symbol of Medieval tomfoolery, a polar bear playing a fiddle - as featured in Brueghel's famous painting, "Polar Bear Playing Fiddle in the Snow". (I stand ready to be shot down if there truly is a connection!)
...This just in from Tamsin, the polar bear (thanks), "There is a vague history of polar bears on the Bankside (Henry II had one that was let out on a chain to fish for its food in the Thames, and there were 3 white bears brought to Paris Garden in 1609, 2 of which were looked after by Henslowe and Alleyn. Also a white bear used in Jonson's Oberon) but the link is fairly tenuous really. We had the bear made for a play that we did at the Globe in 2000, but I'm not quite sure how I got landed with being the bear, I think the original idea was to have a man dancing on the end of a rope while the bear played. Obviously it takes a lot of practice to play with claws on both hands...".
I'd like to point out that Tamsin isn't just a fiddle-playing polar bear - she's mainly a very talented violinist, composer and historical consultant!
thelionspart.co.uk
tamsinlewis.co.uk
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