Two Queens and a Commoner

I’m a big kid at heart and there’s nothing I like better than dressing up and pretending to be someone else.

Recently I have had a plethora of opportunities to indulge my dramatic passions. I’m in the middle of rehearsing for not one but two plays – fortunately one is a murder mystery and as we have to religiously stick to the text, to ensure we deliver each clue to perfection, we are allowed to read from the script. I’m not sure I could learn two parts at once, I’m finding it enough of a struggle learning one set of lines!

But this afternoon I got the chance to play THREE different characters, not just any made up characters either but 3 angry ghosts based on real people.

My friend Mai has written and published a book of thirty poems, each one from the perspective of a famous ghost expressing their anger, often at the unfair way they have been treated in the history books. As she writes at the beginning…

Anger in its extremity produces vast amounts of energy.

Death cannot destroy energy; it merely takes on a new form.

The form of a restless spirit, venting their long-held grievances!

Mai has written poems for ghosts as varied as Neanderthal woman to Abraham Lincoln, Helen of Troy to Rasputin. 

If your historical knowledge is lacking there are short biographies of each character at the back of the book. Very informative, especially for the lesser-known figures such as Abu Bakr II, ruler of the Mali Empire in the 14th Century or Maria Quiteria “the Brazilian Joan of Arc”.

Each poem was written to be read aloud, more than that, to be "performed" thereby bringing each ghost temporarily back to life. To that end a few of us have had our arms twisted, in the nicest possible way of course, to dress up and be dead angry in local libraries and WI meetings.

It’s great fun, sourcing costumes from charity shops, dressing up and making new friends along the way.

This afternoon we filmed some lines from the poems with the aid of a white board to act as an autocue. This will be edited for promotional material. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out, we had so much fun.

You may be wondering which ghosts I became, well as the title of this blog suggests I transformed myself into two queens and a commoner. 

Cleopatra with a black beaded wig and lots of eyeliner, Margaret Catchpole, a local Suffolk lass who was sent to Australia for stealing her master's horse and Queen Victoria, in a costume I pulled together in five minutes using the bits and pieces gathered on the table.

Mai as the wild and furious Boudicca

Caesar - beware the Ides of March

not looking particularly angry!

Margaret Catchpole - longing to go home to England

Preparing to be Queen Victoria - no photos of Cleopatra today

Once the video is edited, I’m sure it will be shared as far and wide on social media as we can reach between us.

If you are interested in buying a copy of the book it is available in each of the wonderful independent bookshops of Ipswich, Woodbridge and Felixstowe, or if you are outside Suffolk try Hive.co.uk you can get the book delivered to an independent bookshop near you or delivered directly to your door.

If you enjoy both history and poetry this book combines the two to perfection and at only £7.99 it is a bargain. 

Buy it now or risk incurring the wrath of thirty historic ghosts who are really not amused!

We are NOT amused.