Magic in Kensignton Gardens

I watched Wendy fly away with Peter Pan tonight, and I am lost in the magic of it all.

“That's the thing with magic. You've got to know it's still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you.”

Magic. Despite of, or conceivably due to, the intermittent rains of London, the city is a spring for the mystique, the exquisite, the charm that can only be found in a olden town where the presence of queens and kings from a time long before is mingled with the ever growing cosmopolitanism of the world’s financial center. Like cupid shooting a flaming arrow into my heart, the winsome London has captured my attention and I stand in amazement at the world around me.

Mara and Lydia are two sisters from Texas also studying with me at LSE. Tonight the three of us ventured to Hyde Park’s Kensington Garden to watch the live theatre performance of Peter Pan. First of all, Kensington Garden in and of itself is awe inspiring. Only a few steps away from the tube we were greeted with a massive fountain spraying it's water in every direction. On our walk to the theatre we passed all sorts of beautiful trees (I kind of have a thing about cool trees, let's face it: I am a granola...). This is one of the only instances that I can truly say the theatre didn't distract from nature, but complemented it...quite nicely I might add. The theatre-in-the-round was “just a tent” set up in the middle of the park. Around the top five or six feet stood a beautifully animated scene: the same scene that made the flying of Wendy and Peter Pan absolutely alive and real. Tink was a comical sight: she wore a pink tutu with twinkling lights in her up-do hair style, but on her feet she was decked out in grey theater shoes…it worked perfectly for the setting of Never Never Land! Tink but was spunky and mean, and still her demeanor led the crowd to shake our little pink bells and whisper “I do believe in fairies” to revive her after she had fallen to the vicious tactics of Captain Hook! I learned way more about Peter Pan through watching, and despite the differences I love it all the more.

Intermission was great: even though there were many children in the audience (who giggled oh so cutely), the deck outside (but still covered due to the ever present London rain) was very classy. The image below was show above the bar: which had an expanse much larger than my classroom wall. The tables were covered with sparkling white clothes. For a night, I was a spectator of the enchating tale of the boy who didn't want to grow up, and for a moment I, too, want to move to Never Never Land to live a life full of adventure and wanderlust. I want to fight the daring Captain Hook and tell stories to the Lost Boys. And, like Wendy, I also want to take the friends I've met along the way with me to grow up together. Maybe that's part of the magic...that my life is a form of Peter Pan in and of itself..and that thought a lot alone is enchanting.