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« on: May 27, 2010, 01:14:43 PM »
I went to the Enchanted Palace exhibit last week and absolutely hated it. Mind you, my standard for satisfaction was set pretty low. I've wanted to visit London forever and just getting to set foot in some of these places was enough. But no, despite the face that several princesses had lived there prior and that was the basis of the exhibit, they ruined it. Going into it, I knew who the princesses were. I know more about some than others, but all in all, enough to get by in a conversation. But the exhibit was just so vague as to what room belonged to which princess. "Here's a room for a princess who cries a lot", "this is for a rebellious princess", "this princess likes to buy china". Only at the end are the princesses themselves named, but never in such a way that makes it clear just which rebellious princess they were referring to (when I could see several of them fitting that bill). I was with three friends who know only what I've told them about royalty and they were as lost as last year's Easter egg.
I just don't understand the purpose. Is it meant to educate or entertain? It's difficult to navigate as an adult, yet they handed us a piece of paper to fill out, like something you'd find on a child's menu at a fast food restaurant. If it was meant to be more artistic than educational, fine, as some of the gowns were really lovely, but most of the art itself, especially the scribblings written on the walls, was pretty amateurish. However, the weirdest part of the whole experience had to be this actor who ran around ahead of us, running through and slamming doors. Then, when we finally caught up with him (which some of us would have preferred not to have done) he was wearing a lit pith helmet, scribbling in an old book while looking at an exhibit and mumbling to himself. As I had done my research before showing up, I tentatively asked if he was Peter (part of the draw of the thing apparently is that a feral wild child who lived during the reign of George II has returned to the palace to crazy it up and we as the tourists are supposed to look for him) and he said no, that he was sure looking for him though. My friends and I sort of raised our eyebrows as a signal that we really needed to get away from this guy fast. We never did find out what he was doing there and we never found Peter the wild boy either. Some parts of the exhibit were interesting -seeing the actual clothes and furniture of the princesses as well as this played tape conversation of Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill's big fight, but all in all it was a huge disappointment and I'm still wondering what it all means.
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