John Donne's Second Prebend Sermon in Historically-Based Performance |
The Historical Context
The occasion
Donne preached this sermon in St Paul's Cathedral on 29 January, 1626.
The place
St Paul's Cathedral: its significance; Donne's role as Dean; the Prebend Sermons.
The date: 29 January 1625 (1625/1626)
Donne's life and times at this date. Is this 1625 or 1626 in our calendar?
This performance
Donne preached this sermon in St Paul's Cathedral on 29 January, 1626. We represent this first performance of the sermon, using Saskatoon's St John's Cathedral to stand for St Pauls.
Colin Gibbings plays John Donne, Brent Nelson directed the performance (with Peter Robinson). Filming and post-production editing was by the University of Saskatchewan Media Production team. Performed and filmed in St John's Cathedral, Saskatoon, on Thursday 11th Feburary 2016. We are grateful to the Cathedral for hosting this performance.
For teachers and students
- This sermon has many famously complex rhetorical sequences: e.g. the "All our life is a continuall burden" passage. How is this handled in the performance?