Tuesday 31 January 2012

Gawain and the Green Knight

To Cambridge bouncing around in a very snug van (four in the back, no seats, some cushions, creaky bones) to the Cambridge Storytellers last week.

http://www.cambridgestorytellers.com/

And what did we do there?

We saw the fabulous Sarah Rundle there

http://www.sarahrundle.co.uk/

performing Gawain and the Green Knight: a medieval tale of fantasy, treachery, wild animals, noble deeds, beautiful ladies, indestructable monsters, a magic axe, complicated family relationships and much much more.

It was very good.

It was, as someone commented in the van on the way back, a performance. Elements of standup in it for example: when Gawain is faced with a decision, it appeared as a powerpoint presentation (bubble/diamond) across the stage.

When I say 'appeared', I mean, of course, 'didn't appear at all'.

Sarah told us about it and acted it out and made us imagine it in glorious technicolour. Well, largely green: there really was some glowing vivid green as a backdrop, but... we were also imagining all the other colours. Especially white (teeth) and red (blood), thanks to a terrifying sung passage about Mr Fox.

And this is the power of the spoken (sung, acted) word.

The pictures are better.