Lesson 1 - East End Tales & 5 Facts

Lesson 1 - East End Tales
In our first Thursday lesson to start off the term we were able to obtain the script of "East End Tales". We read through it in the first part of our lesson and immediately I found out that this play was different in a variety of ways. Simply put, the scenes were cut into separate parts called tales, this meant that it didn't have a flowing story like most plays because each tale was set in a different time, with different characters, in different places.

The few characters we knew the names of were described immensely in the prologue of the play. I feel that Fin Kennedy, who is the writer of this play, has purposely used this technique to show that the characters' characteristics are full of detail and have nothing to hide from society. The others are described in little detail but throughout the tale give hints of personal details about their life.

After we read through the tales we decided to split up in groups of 4 and deliver our ideas of the play onto a mind map. Usually these ideas were short but powerful words like "Loss" or "Youth". Collectively, we talked about what the words meant to us and the scenes that included those same words in it. As we concluded our last word we were set the task of improvising a photo frame, using one of our words, to the class. Our frames were very different compared to the rest as everyone had different opinions on the matter which linked with some of the scenes in the play. 

5 Facts about The East End 

Captain James Cook first met Elizabeth Batts when she was a young child in Wapping; they married in 1762 and lived in Mile End, the East End of London.

One of the first people to sight Australia was Zachariah Hicks and he was from the East End

The largest ox ever sold was reared in the Isle of Dogs and sold at the Leadenhall Market.

Such excellent peppermints were created by a company in the East End, called C & E Mortons that Madagascar used them as a form of money.

Slavery was finally abolished in 1833, around 15,000 people were freed and most of these were found living in the East End.