★★★★
It was quite a privilege to be present at the first of a new storytelling night from Dougie Mackay. There was a real sense of chemistry between storytellers and audience that is a rarity in theatre. Our four storytellers sat around the virtual hearth, that was conjured into heat and warmth by the delicate arrangement of words and song.
Mackay’s traditional stories mixed humour, folktale and the profound in that way the old tales do. He managed to arrange the night so we had a great variety of giddy peaks and emotional troughs.
Jemima Thewes beautiful musical arrangements and haunting songs changed our perspectives and brought a whole different vibe to the room.
Jusztina Hermann’s dances were stunningly hypnotic, and showed how non-verbal movement can define storytelling as much as music and spoken word.
The energy coursing through David Hughes as he emphatically delivered a story of ancient Irish myth, that of the Fomorians, with such a zeal, his charisma and cheeky humour imbued the story with an immediacy that engaged and entertained.
It was a brilliant conceit that the individual storytellers of the first half, weaved together in the second, so song, dance and story became one.
This is a great night out, and an event that will hopefully continue for years.
