Spoken Word Reviews
800 YEARS AND COUNTING - Chapel Arts Creative Writing Group
St Thomas Becket Church was founded in 1225 and the town of Chapel-en-le-Frith grew around it so both are celebrating their 800th anniversary this year. Chapel Arts Creative Writing Group, featuring award-winning published writers, have produced a booklet featuring work inspired by this anniversary, and performed those pieces in their usual meeting place upstairs at Rems Cafe Bar.
The choice of a relevant local subject as the central theme and the variety of the pieces written by the members of the group made for an entertaining evening as we moved from songs and poems to short stories and memoir, and even a fun sketch full of reminiscences, which brought a lot of knowing chuckles from the audience, not to mention a great costume change.
In a nicely structured performance, group leader and author Mark Henderson linked the pieces with little nuggets of Chapel-en-le-Frith history. Ann Orret opened the evening singing an old folk song unaccompanied, a beautiful performance that carried over into her other readings and songs. Key events in the area’s history were vividly reimagined by Cheryl Baker, and Simone Hubbard shared her more recent memories of the town.
An appreciative audience heard about many of the people who have populated the area over the centuries. Were the Foresters who looked after the King’s lands villains preventing the locals from enjoying the fruits of the forest, or heroes for protecting the woodland? And have the church’s eight centuries really been bookended by crooks and eccentrics as vicars?
Stephanie Billen closed the evening with a poignant but hopeful look back from a far future anniversary, her narrator in imaginative contemplation of the town surrounded by trees - a chapel in a forest clearing once more.
Enjoy another performance on Sunday 13 Jul at 2pm at which you can pick up a copy of the booklet which has been produced in aid of local charity, Little Cherubs.
Stephen Walker
AND OTHER CREATURES - Polis Loizou
A Buxton Festival Fringe regular, Polis is back this year with an intimate performance of some very dark folklore indeed.
Polis is a really engaging and talented storyteller. He set the scene beautifully, describing sights, sounds and smells which transported the audience to his native Cyprus and beyond, and then delivered a collection of deliciously chilling and 'other worldly' fables. It's a very personal show, Polis is sharing the stories he grew up with, we meet some of his family along the way and hear his thoughts about his heritage.
The show is engaging and thought-provoking. It evoked memories of stories told to me as a child and reminded me of how we like to scare each other. Although there are touches of humour, deeper themes run through Polis's work - do we turn 'strangeness' and unorthodoxy into monsters and enemies and creatures of the night?
This is a clever show, the material is both entertaining and thought-provoking and Polis is a very accomplished performer. It's just the kind of little gem that you hope to stumble across at the Fringe, highly enjoyable.
Just one other performance - Tuesday 22nd at 1pm Underground at Spring Gardens.
Janet Payne
THE BEAT GOES ON - The Glummer Twins
I gather that the Glummer Twins (David Harmer & Ray Globe) are now at their eleventh Buxton Fringe. They treated us to their characteristic witty, slick and self-effacing humour. The time-travel from the 1950s to the present day offers a great frame on which to hang their material. Although some of the items were familiar from previous shows, they pack the words in, so that there’s plenty to engage and entertain. At certain points, you’re reminded of other performers, particularly duos, but ultimately, they’re their own men – a bit bewildered and a bit grumpy, but, always funny and clever with their wordplay. Also, great timing, particularly with the wordier and faster numbers, mostly performed to backing tracks. Everything is there to be sent up, right down to Ray’s cigar-box guitar. Even a slip up is something to be incorporated and played upon for more laughs.
It’s telling that there were several other performers in the audience. If you haven’t seen them on a previous occasion, you’ve missed part of Fringe lore. If you have seen them before, you’ll know you’re in for a good show - they’re on very good form. You only have their second show at 4pm on Saturday 12th to catch them here this year.
Ian Bowns
A BOY CALLED THUNDER, A SERIES OF GHOST STORIES - Ian Gregory
On a boiling hot carnival afternoon, a series of chilling ghost stories in the calm upstairs at Scriveners Bookshop was an oasis from the chaos outside. Across five stories (a bonus one more than the advertised four), Ian Gregory explored the strange apparitions of a pair of teenage ne'er do wells, Frank and Taron Morgan (Taron meaning thunder in Welsh making him the eponymous hero) curiously dressed anachronistically in scruffy clothes from the 1940s.
In each of the tales set in modern times, they mysteriously arrive in the nick of time to avert certain disaster for the protagonists. After helping to direct a rescuer to a boy lost and injured in a wood, they disappear without a trace, but the next day the rescuer spots them in a picture in an exhibition about the Second World War. As the stories unfolded, we learnt more about their history and perhaps a reason why they sought redemption through their actions.
Two of the stories were set in lockdown, including the only story not featuring the boys, and they interestingly leant on the inherent spookiness of that period, when no one was around to help and lend reassurance in a crisis.
Gregory is an enthusiastic storyteller with a full house upstairs at Scriveners, and his boys own adventure style stories will remind many of the tales of derring-do they grew up on.
Stephen Walker
BUCKETS OF BLOOD - FAIRY TALES NOT FOR KIDS - Stories Alive / Sweet Productions
When I spotted this show in the Fringe programme, I didn’t hesitate to book. My obsession with reading began at an early age and fairy tales were always my favourite. While the versions I’m familiar with pull no punches, the stories presented in this show have a far darker vibe. The shows performer, Eden Ballantyne, takes his audience on a journey through three lesser-known tales recorded by the Brothers Grimm.
As Eden explains in his introduction, the Grimms gathered tales together that had been in circulation since the Middle Ages and earlier and published them in a collection in 1812.
The staging is wonderfully simple, but effective. He uses only one prop, which comes into its own on more than one occasion. Eden’s performance is energetic and physical. He moves around the stage, effortlessly morphing into each different character. Sound effects and lighting reinforced the scarier moments!
None of the audience were familiar with the three tales Eden performs - The Robbers Bridegroom, The Fitcher’s Bird and The Juniper Tree, but this didn’t diminish our enjoyment. Familiar tropes are revealed throughout the tales including dark forbidding woods and magicians in disguise etc. but I don’t want to spoil the surprises, so will say no more.
There are some truly awful comeuppances for the nasty characters – far grislier than I recall reading in my Ladybird books! There is a reason this show is just for adults.
Between each tale, Eden gives the audience some insights into some really well-known tales, including Cinderella, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood and Snow White.
The hour flies by and my only complaint is that we didn’t have longer to sit and watch Eden perform. Filled with humour and horror in equal measure, we laughed, sang along (in some cases) and all escaped into the imaginary worlds Eden conjured. I would highly recommend.
April Irwin
DOCTOR COPPELIUS - Chris Neville-Smith
Chris Neville-Smith is a Fringe regular, both here and elsewhere and is always to be found in the hub of things, I spotted him at the Fringe launch party last night!
His reimagining of the tale of Dr Coppelius has been to the Fringe before but now it seems to have benefited from further performing and editing. It is in part a love story, part fairy tale and part a political allegory for our times.
These themes are interwoven into the narrative which keeps the audience on their toes. There are of course echoes of the ballet by Delibes but there are also echoes of very different works involving human artificial/machine relationships, and while it’s no Blade Runner it does reflect contemporary concerns with ‘the other’ which have become all too commonplace.
A one-man show is by its nature both intense for the actor/performer and the audience, but Chris knows his work and pulls it off well.
There are more performances on the 10th, 15th and 16th of July at the same venue.
Ian Parker Heath
EXCERPTS FROM UNDER MILK WOOD - Buxton Spoken Words
Original Poetry and Under Milk Wood
If you have ever seen old films of the 'Beat Generation' (pre-hippies and pre-Merseybeat) then you may remember pictures of smoky coffee bars, dim lighting and long-haired beatniks reading avant-garde poetry to each other. Applause was clicking of fingers rather than clapping of hands, then on to the next ‘Head’ to stand up; Cool Man.
Change the scene from dim, smoky coffee bars to the bright United Reform Church and with a bit of imagination...(quite a lot of imagination actually) then maybe...
It's possible that many of the ‘Words’ group were around in those days and may even have been part of that scene (a bit unlikely in Buxton perhaps – but then not everybody has had all their formative experiences here).
If the above image is familiar, then sorry to disappoint but the passing years, the families, the responsibilities, the internet and the gray hairs have diminished the wild free spirits. Diminished but not exhausted. Some creativity has remained and even matured. This was evident in the wide mix of poetry on display with lyrical serious stuff about nature and seasons. There's a poem about how television is better than reality, one about DIY and a dog, another about the problems with giving advice, and a skiff on the Dead Poets Society.
A mixed bag deserving of much finger clicking (but not much about legalising cannabis or overthrowing the state). Some of this will be set to music on Friday 18th at the Conservative Club (wouldn’t have happened there in the Beatnik days). Well, the poetry with music worked for Leonard Cohen didn’t it?
The first part of the show gave us excerpts from Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood. This work is so well known, and possibly a bit ‘safe’ but it was competently and well presented with seven speakers delivering many voices.
Try Friday for the enhanced show.
Brian Kirman
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS: ELIZABETH AND THE END - Jane Collier
The atmospheric and perfectly apt setting of a lower ground floor room of the 250 years old Crescent building played host for a very special guest last evening. Mary Queen of Scots and her devoted companion Jane Kennedy met a 21st century audience on the eve of Mary's execution to hear her life story.
In a candle lit setting, a tale of two Queens from two separate countries but on one island ensued. Mary maintained that she was more 'conspired against than conspiring' From the death of her father, King James V of Scotland at just 30 years old, she was left, at 6 days old as Queen in waiting, leading to the creation of a strong Regent mother. Details of Mary's idyllic upbringing in France, her less than idyllic marriages, the birth of her son and her eventual captivity in England for nigh on twenty years - all of these were described engagingly, interestingly and faultlessly by the incredible Jane Collier who portrayed Mary beautifully. Mary told of her respite visits to Chatsworth and to Buxton itself to take the waters - a great solace to her as her health began to inevitably fail - this of course brought the tale very close to home.
The attempts to forge a relationship with the formidable Queen Elizabeth I, the political and religious wranglings of her court aligned with the intrigue and conspiracies of the time - all were relayed to the attentive audience, demonstrating admirably the fear of all who lived in these dark and lawless times, including monarchs. Mary witnessed many rivalries and power struggles of the 16th century, and suffered at the hands of those involved.
This was a first class performance which cannot be praised highly enough . It was deservedly sold out. The next performance will be on Thursday 17th July at 7pm at the Buxton Crescent Experience.
Julie Alexander
MEET LOCAL NOVELIST, ALEC INGHAM - Alec Ingham aka Pete Brown
Alec Ingham’s debut crime novel is about the nefarious side of working in museums. His alter ego, Pete Brown, has worked in the museum sector for many years, and so knows where the bodies are likely to be buried. We gathered by the bay window on the first floor of Scrivener’s bookshop, joined briefly by the bookshop cat, waiting for Pete to tell us his story of writing.
Pete began by explaining that he had chosen to use a pen name because there were already two Pete Browns who had been recently published. He also said that writing as Alec Ingham helped him to overcome the ingrained feeling that Pete Brown isn’t a person who writes books. Pete doesn’t come from a family of writers, and his mum told 20 year old Pete that writing was something he could do when he retired. It was another family member who finally prompted Pete to get on with writing a novel; at a family gathering some years ago his brother asked Pete if he was ever going to write that blasted novel he kept talking about.
Drawing on his experience in the world of museums, Pete slowly put together a thrilling story of skulduggery and stolen artefacts. He describes how his writing process is somewhere between the fully plotted out in advance school (as used by Agatha Christie) and the make it up as you go along approach (said to be preferred by Stephen King). He described how inspiration for solving tricky plot points can strike at any time, so he always carries a scrap of paper in his pocket, or uses his phone to take notes.
There was time for audience questions, and we discussed the pros and cons of different points of view. Pete tried both first and third, but found first person came more naturally when writing Artefact. He said people often ask him if his main character, Joe Bosisto, is based on himself, and Pete says he has used bits of his own experience, but Joe is a character in his own right.
This was a fascinating session which gave an insight into one writer’s creative processes. On a rainy Saturday morning, there is nothing nicer than sitting somewhere surrounded by books, discussing books. And of course your reviewer bought a copy of the book!
Georgina Blair
OUR ANXIOUS MEASUREMENTS - Dean Tsang
Poet Dean Tsang rates every day using a colour-based system, which make an attractive rainbow across his calendar, but is it healthy to measure your life like this? And does it speak to an anxiety about how we measure up?
Tsang’s cycle of poems circle around the anxiety sparked by a series of metrics. Quite literally, as he has a wheel of fortune featuring all these measures. The wheel is spun to select the order, and there are billions of possible ways the show could turn out, though there is a best way and a worst way. Something else to be anxious about.
After an introductory poem, the wheel is spun and we begin with millilitres and a poem about bottling things up. The points on the wheel are a mixture of actual metrics (Kcal, Watts, Inches) and things that we measure (Heat, Money, Success), and the poems can be specific to the subject or take it as a jumping off point, but they all focus on a tendency to anxiety.
Tsang is an accomplished performance poet with a friendly manner that allows him to successfully engage with the audience in the intimate surroundings of Scriveners Bookshop. For his poem Hue about his practice of rating his days, he shares the calendars from his diary to show the colour patterns, and can tell us why any given day was blue (nice), red (the worst) or glorious purple.
He has superb control over his rhythm and flow, with an amazing ability to stay in control of some extreme plosive alliteration during the intense BPM about Atrial Fibrilation, which, mimicking the condition, increases in tempo to an almost unbelievable pitch. Other highlights include Money about all the ways to be broke, while Speed relates how life goes by too fast, yet there’s still the fun of playing Mario Karts.
Hopefully, Tsang will be able to colour today a shade of blue, as the cycle ended the way he wanted it to on Success. The final poem is a refrain of the first, cleverly working his way around the wheel, touching on all the measures and how we often use them to tell ourselves we don’t measure up. It is a truism that by measuring something it attains importance, but many of the most important things in life evade this kind of analysis. How can you measure the experience of being in love, the joy of a sunny day, or the pleasure of this excellent Fringe show?
Stephen Walker
PARANORMAL ACCOUNTS WITH THE GRAVEYARD KNITTING CLUB - Graveyard Knitting Club
So, I was hanging out with Barbara and Margaret at their weekly knitting meetup at Scrivener's mysterious bookshop.
There’s only about ten of us, so once everyone’s settled, we get introduced to the ladies and jump straight into a fast-paced, 30-minute story swap—stuff from the other side, some lawyer stories, what the guys have been up to, and some juicy gossip.
They also brought up haunted spots around Buxton and Derbyshire, with weird markings on the buildings that you should keep an eye out for.
And get this, they’re knitting the whole time! Never did find out what they were making, though.
This whole thing left me with some homework—now I've got to check out more of the spooky stuff happening around Buxton...
Mark Justin-Ford
VERA BRITTAIN AND BUXTON – A DIFFERENT STORY - Kathryn Ecclestone & BCHT
Vera Brittain is one of Buxton's most famous residents ever. But according to some local people she is the most infamous due to her less than favourable views of the town expressed in her Book Testament of Youth when she condemned her “provincial young ladyhood.” In her book, written when she was 36, Brittain spends 60 of the 600+ pages lambasting Buxton as “stifling and provincial".
Brittain lived in the town from the age of 11 to 22 when she left for nursing training in London in 1915, just before the First World War. She went on to become one of the twentieth century's most significant feminist and pacifist figures.
In her new biography Testament of Lost Youth – The Early Life and Loves of Vera Brittain, Kathryn Ecclestone challenges the idea that Vera Brittain disliked her Buxton upbringing.
The evening’s presentation was set out as an interview with former Buxton Advertiser Editor John Phillips asking the questions and Kathyrn providing an easy dialogue on Brittain’s time in Buxton using a slideshow of photos featuring both Buxton and the Brittain family. The acoustics in the packed pump room worked well as a backdrop for this approach and the audience were soon engrossed in Kathryn’s passion for, and knowledge of her subject.
A long-term Buxton resident and supporter of the town Kathryn discovered the plaque to Brittain on a house in Park Road during a walk with her husband and her interest was piqued.
It was later when she lived for a period in Melrose Brittain's “House of Many Comforts" during lockdown that she began her serious research, writing the biography, working in Brittain's old reading room.
By a stroke of luck her research put her in touch with an archivist in Canada where the Vera Brittain archive is based and a joint enthusiasm of all things Brittain led to Katheryn receiving a complete copy of Vera’s diary. This was a game changer for Katheryn.
The diary revealed that far from being provincial Brittain enjoyed nights at the theatre, extended lectures from Oxford university at the Town Hall and talks by Emily Pankhurst, trips to London on the train and mixing with an exclusive social circle.
That Vera enjoyed a life of privileged is clear from her dress allowance to her private education, but it was during her time in Buxton that she struck up a friendship with a local curate at St Peter’s church in Fairfield that seems to have triggered her awareness of her privileged position and stirred her social conscious.
Asked by John if Kathryn liked her subject she hesitates “I admired her, I liked her view that as a feminist she could still wear nice cloths, she was fun and girlish in the diaries but also snobbish and a bit priggish I was a bit intimidated by her ability to be totally outspoken and of course her standing up as a pacifist, but I’m not sure I would say liked.”
Asked why Kathryn thinks there is a disconnect between Buxton in Testament of Youth and the diary? Kathryn has several theories, explored in her book. The one that chimed with me is that Brittain didn’t write the book till she was 36, looking back on her younger self. By this time she was an established Labour party supporter, feminist and pacifist, her younger self must have seemed frivolous as well as privileged and spoilt especially seen though the lens of the horrors of the First World War.
At the end of the evening there was a Q and A session, lots of the audience were keen to continue the debate and it seemed several people had been converted to Kathryn’s point of view, myself included.
This was the only chance to hear Kathryn as part of the Fringe, but her book is available from the Pump Room and all good book sellers.
Carole Garner
WHAT IT IS TO BE BLUE - Dreamshed Theatre
This is the ultimate ´work in progress´. Bill Cronshaw doesn’t have a show; just an idea for a show, and asks the audience up front if this material is worth developing.
A few years ago Bill wrote a revue to be performed celebrating the ups and downs of Manchester City Football Club. A mixture of poems, songs and monologues planned to be performed in 2020. But of course the big shutdown of those years rudely interrupted this plan.
The ´show´, such as it is, is a celebration not just of a football team but of the faithful supporters who stuck with their team though hard times, and there were many of those with City. Their recent success is seen as a reward for all those years of pain.
There is a lot of nostalgia in this relaxed conversational hour: the days when ‘internet’ was where Nat Lofthouse used to bundle the ball (and sometimes the goalkeeper as well), ‘email’ was what a Yorkshireman said on arrival of the postman. Professional players set up side businesses to supplement their wages of £5 per week (Aguero Wine Shop, Ederson Car Sales and The De Bruyne Pub). Doesn't happen anymore.
We get an autobiography of Bill with emphasis on his footballing career. The identity and comradeship of belonging to a team nicely summed up in the book (generously given to all attendees) which contains his story, 'Wembley Comes to Wythenshawe', which is a delightful telling of the imagination of kids turning a playground knockabout into a Wembley Cup Final. Another poignant example of life away from the glamour of top tier leagues is the poem, 'The Co-operative Dairy Wanderers B'.
There were many anecdotes such as Bert Trautmann breaking his neck during play and the coach coming to his aid with a wet sponge (the magic sponge) and then carrying on to finish the game. They were different days.
While the nostalgia and stories were entertaining there is a sense of community of City fans sharing pain and success. While he has a connection and loyalty to City other supporters can empathise with devotion to their own underperforming team (one barb: City were the underdog beaten by other underdogs).
There are no further performances planned (anywhere): Bill asks if this ‘show’ is worth developing. I suggest there is a profound depth of material if he develops the comradeship and sense of belonging to a team or supporters group. There is material here to explore men’s (and women's) devotion to lost causes, community in adversity and commitment to hope. This theme is wider than football.
Bill’s poems are good too. If only he had supported Bolton Wanderers; then he would know pain.
Brian Kirman
