Review: Weaving Words
Original stories and poems spliced with traditional songs and music
Tin Hut, Huntly
[Map]
An overture on djembe calls our attention, and another highly polished performance
from Huntly Writers begins.
Pathos is provided by Ruth Bean's poetic response to a loved one's illness, and
by Anne Rogers' Poverty Knock poem based on a Yorkshire folk song, which
Simon McPhun sang to his guitar accompaniment between stanzas.
Word-play from Fiona Wilson's highly alliterative Tessellate ("...words moulded
in quality..."), and the ready confusion between "Suffolks" and "suffix" in the
Doric playlet by Susan Cunningham.
History in the form of Anne Forbes' recently published account of the Gordon clan,
a work of great credit to the author, easily digested. Family history too; Simon's
self-penned song Gaels about his west-coast origins (maybe it's spelt "Gales"?)
and Maureen Ross' Carried in a Creel concerning her family's story of a bairn
in a basket and a long walk after the Clearances. This last piece, performed in
English, then Doric and finally Gaelic with bass recorder interludes, ends the first
half.
Humour dominates the rest of the evening. Fraser Wilson's Bureaucracy Blues
(from which there's no escape) with guitar, Anne Rogers' A Move too Far short
story of a Pilates exercise gone wrong, Lucy Aykroyd's Scots Quine account
of the birth of her twins. Humour yes, but every other possible emotion too, as
befits the subject. Did I mention Phyllis Goodall's The Auld Hoose? Doric
humour at its best.
Atmosphere in the sound portrait by Haworth Hodgkinson Sketches from Cullykhan,
in which a small frame drum becomes a didgeridoo-like ocean swell to accompany the
reading. Wonderful.
Short stories from Annie Lamb (think Bigfoot and The Hunter Hunted),
and Haseley Hinton's prologue from her fantasy novel Shadow of the Seacrow
provide some meat, while Carol Ann's Marion Dufresne is something lighter.
All three beautifully crafted, but all much longer than Janice Keir's flash fiction
A Degree of Freedom concerning marital disharmony, quite hilarious.
Of course there was more, but you should look out for a Huntly Writers event near
you and experience the whole thing for yourself; you won't be disappointed.
Review by Alan Rogers
Photos by Bill Smith
North East Writers and its partner organisations undertake to produce
all events in the New Words festival as advertised, but we can accept no liability
for details that are changed due to circumstances beyond our control.