Would you mind giving us insight into your art/event/performance?
Warrior/Poet tells the story of the Pollok Free State anti-road protest in the 90’s alongside an old medieval legend of the Pagan king, Mad Sweeney. It’s straight up storytelling, just one teller bringing the stories together. As it’s storytelling, there’s no fourth wall, I will be myself for the piece, so I am also bringing in some of my own personal stories and experiences of environmentalism to pull the threads of the story together. The question I’ve been holding at the centre of the creation of this piece is “Why am I telling these stories now?”
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved in producing your performance?
Storytelling is a living tradition. When we tell stories we are engaging with a “carrying stream”. In the oral tradition, stories are continually told and retold with each teller bringing something of themselves to the telling. Because of this I treat all the stories as ‘alive’ and ‘animate’. I don’t write anything down but try to navigate the story by going out for long walks with my dog and thinking about my connection with the stories and trying out different ways of expressing what I want to say in my own words.
I’ve also had a great deal of support and direction from a fellow storyteller, Shona Cowie, who is helping me shape the piece by asking some really good questions for me to stew over. The Pollok Free State story belongs in Pollok so I’ve spent time in the place the story is from, working with young people from the area and have interviewed some of the people that were involved with the Free State protests to get a sense of what it meant to them.
With the launch of this year’s programme, Birds and Beasts, how does it feel to be involved in the Festival?
The programme for this year’s festival is stacked with loads of excellent events across Scotland. There’s a real variety in there from the range and breadth of things you can do with storytelling. I first went along to the Storytelling Festival in 2017, so it’s a bit mad to be an active part of the festival participating in a few different events this year. I remember going to one of the Open Hearth sessions then and wondering if I’d be able to tell a story on the stage in the Netherbow one day… I’ve done it quite a few times now but Warrior/Poet is my first big solo venture as part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival.
With shows from all over the world, is there anything in the production/team’s backgrounds and identity that influences the show?
This piece explores identity and belonging in Scotland, looking at how people create story in response to their relationship with place. As I mentioned above, the Pollok Free State story is of Pollok – it is rooted there. I am not from Pollok, but I grew up just outside of Glasgow and I’m particularly interested in what it means to share stories that are of a specific place. My own search for belonging is also tied up in the show
Storytelling in Scotland is a treasured, if often unsung, craft within the media. For those who may be unfamiliar with a live performance, what can audiences expect?
The main thing that I think sets storytelling apart from other live performance art forms is that the teller will be themselves through the story. There’s no fourth wall and it’s not scripted. The teller should be able to bring the story to life in a way that meet people in the room it’s in. It requires active participation from the listener. We’re asking you to imagine the story with us: there’s often no set or props, and that requires active attention. Good storytelling should grab your attention and lead you through the story well, delivering you out safely the other side.
With one foot in tradition and another in the present, what do you hope for Storytelling’s future, either as a performance or as a community?
Storytelling and folk culture is having a bit of a resurgence at the moment. I think and hope that more people are encouraged to understand and participate in storytelling as an art form. It seems to me that more people are looking beyond ‘mainstream’ culture for something different, and the folk arts are a great means to engage with counterculture and explore different perspectives, ways of being and knowing in the world. There’s a danger that anything can become commodified, but storytelling and the traditional arts represent more than commodity.
Now, more than ever, we need to come back to what it means to be human, and sharing stories eye to eye, mind to mind and heart to heart links us directly to our heritage, culture, and shared humanity as a species.
Warrior/Poet runs at The scottish Storytelling Centre as a part of The Scottish International Storytelling Festival on 23rd October
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