During the pandemic lockdown I took the opportunity to review, refresh, refind and reset my self and my storytelling.  This meant stepping back from my previous ‘sets’ and ‘performances’ and starting from scratch.  From there I am now developing 2 new ‘sets / performances’: ‘The Crane Bag of Stories’ and ‘A Leaf on the Tree’.  These will be ready for the late Spring / early Summer of 2022.

‘The Crane Bag of Stories’

I considered an animistic approach to Storytelling, where I let go of control not managing the performance, the balance of energies and of time; but trusting in the interaction between the ‘Spirit’ of teller, of listener, of story, of performance, and of place.  I had to consider how to do this. 

From this place the ‘Crane Bag of Stories’ emerged with me telling stories to stones, each stone holding a story and a representation of that story; I crafted a bag to hold the story-stones.  I trust the audience to pick a stone, the stone which emerges will carry the story that needs to be told in that place, at that time, that needs to be heard by someone in that audience.

‘A Leaf on the Tree’

Across the world, nations, peoples and cultures the same themes of stories occur, consider the wide range of ‘Cinderella’ stories, or ‘tricksters’.  If each of these stories is a leaf on the tree, with each type a branch on the tree, each branch of story growing from the trunk of legend, the trunk growing from the roots of myth, and the myths growing from the seeds planted when ancient ancestors first told a story that offered an insight, an explanation, a teaching, a lesson, of the world inhabited by those who listened.

Clearly what has grown from those early seeds into the stories we know today story has been shaped by many ‘cultural gardeners’.  We cannot know those first seeds, we can, however, consider the stories, story types, legends and myths; and perhaps look to find links and similarities outside of the pruning, shaping, cutting, sculpting of other gardeners.  In so doing we may find that the messages of those early seeds are as fresh today as when first told.  I make no claim here of not pruning, shaping, cutting and sculpting myself as a gardener, every storyteller shapes the story, but so does every listener.

So I considered how might the leaf that is ‘the marriage of Gawain and the Loathly Lady’, tracked with the legends and Myths: of Arthur; of the Goddess of Sovereignty; of the Mother Goddess; grow a different leaf.  So I offer this story as ‘A Leaf on the Tree’ shaped slightly differently, but hopefully a leaf that will thrive in today’s climate.