Danny Boyle, director of 'Slumdog Millionaire' and '127 Hours', has unveiled his countryside concept for the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony. This is pure Boyle's vision, to be named "Green and Pleasant" and will feature a real oak tree, fields, meadows and streams with real farmyard animals grazing on the land. There will be a menagerie of 30 sheep, 12 horses, three cows, two goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, nine geese and three sheepdogs. I hope they won't be freaked out by the noise of the million-watt sound system and the 80,000 fans watching in the stadium!
There will be families having picnics, people playing cricket on the village green and what I think is the best part of the quirky set- four giant clouds suspended by wires which will rain down (if the British weather doesn't do that by itself).
The set will also feature a Glastonbury Tor and two mosh pits: one representing Glastonbury and the other, Last Night of the Proms (or the 'posh pit'). Boyle hopes they will do battle and "face off each other during the evening".
Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' is another influence on the show and is about 'a land recovering from its industrial legacy'. Europe's biggest bell will ring to signal the start of the show, as bells did in London to signal peace at the end of WW2. The enormous bell is inscribed with a quote from Caliban 'Be not afeard, the isle full of noises'.
The opening ceremony is predicted to have a worldwide audience of one billion people and will involve a cast of 10,000, including NHS nurses, to bring Boyle's vision to life.
Although the model looks like a school project in its present state, I hope the final show will be spectacular in a quirky, imaginative way. I was surprised by Boyle's choice- I thought it would be, ummm...cooler. It seems a little too quaint, a little too 'Daily Mail' and not representative or dynamic enough. Is this the Britain we want to portray to the world? It looks a bit like Teletubby land from here. Boyle has said “It is not an easy challenge to get the opening ceremony right, how can you present something that feels decent and people recognise as being truthful, but yet is a celebration?” I did hear he's teaming up with Underworld, whose rave music featured in Trainspotting. I think Boyle probably has some surprises up his sleeve. It will be green and pleasant, no doubt. If it's slick, the show could be special!
