It’s likely you’ve heard about the Barge that washed up in English Bay during a coastal BC storm. Now with a new nickname, Barge on the Beach, the internet has had lots of fun making memes and travel reviews about this unexpected Vancouver “installation” – it even has its own Twitter account! The Barge has become so popular that our very own Artistic Director Christopher Gaze created a new version of the St. Crispin’s Day Speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V to commemorate it.
Photo: Christopher Gaze with the English Bay Barge (CBC)
Written as of Monday, December 13
(with apologies to William Shakespeare)
This day is called the Barge on the Beach day
We that shall live this day and come safe home
Will stand a tiptoe when this day is named
And rouse us at the sight of the Barge on the rocks.
West End residents that shall live this day and see old age
Will yearly feast their neighbours
And say, tomorrow is the bedevilled Barge Day –
Then will we declare ourselves that we’ll meet
And share the memories of these unique and unusual days.
Old Vancouverites forget, yet all shall be forgot
But we’ll remember with advantages
What stories we learned today.
Then shall we remember the failure of the King Tide on December the Sixth
That would have lifted the Barge like Noah’s flood
And been towed away by the tug boat specialists, away from Sunset Beach and the West End onlookers
This disappointing moment will be in our flowing cups freshly remembered.
These memories shall we, the recorders of current history
Will teach our children
And the marooned Barge on the Beach
shall remain in our minds from this day to the ending of the world
And will always be remembered.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers and sisters
For those that overlook this Barge with me today shall be my siblings.
And those that are too late to barge in, shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And count their lost opportunity a heavy cost
Whiles any speaks that met with us
As we watch the Barge stuck in English Bay – it’s like a Shakespeare play!
Check out the Vancouver Sun’s feature about the St. Crispin’s Day Speech.