Tonight, back with the Crick Crack Club for storytelling at Rich Mix - this one was The Spanking Goddess, with the inimitable Clare Murphy. It occurred to me during it that I should have invited Ivan - he loved the one storytelling event he attended, and would be interested in this, a performance of Irish mythology - ah well..
I made it in nice time for the bus. And since this evening, unlike the last time I attended storytelling at this venue, I had no-one with me who wouldn't eat Indian, I headed for Brick Lane - and specifically, the restaurant there that I'm familiar with, Cinnamon. (I'm glad I booked - although they were pretty empty when I arrived, you apparently get a 20% discount for booking!) They seem to have expanded next door as well, although I was in the original building.
So, service was pretty quick - they asked first whether I'd like poppadums, and with them being only 75p, that seemed like a good idea. I then had lamb samosas - sensibly, much smaller (and cheaper, as it happened) than in Flora Indica - and my staple, butter chicken with peshwari naan. They have a spectacular range of rice flavours - I decided to try onion. The nice man asked whether I'd like a soft drink - which puzzled me: so I asked whether I could have a glass of wine..? He looked nonplussed.. someone plonked a wine glass on my table, and after a bit, the first guy returned, in his coat, with a small bottle. Which, mind you, was very good. When I paid, in due course, the receipt from an off-licence was stapled to the bill. I also noticed people at other tables with full bottles.. I eventually twigged that this is a BYOB place now! Oops.. Well, I was stuffed, as ever, and it was all good - although could have been hotter, honestly.
And so to Rich Mix, something like an hour early. Oh, the blast of heat as I entered was a relief - it's dramatically colder today. I used up some of the time by going to the loo, then discovered the bar was open - so I had the house white, which was very good. (At the interval, I was intrigued to be first to the bar - well, being in the front row helped.) I have a feeling the show was sold out - certainly, the poor guy on the door had a long spreadsheet to check for everyone! so, entry was a bit slow.
The show started late, too - not that I minded, with the stream of 80s hits that was playing! When she came on (to the one non-female artist, interestingly), she mentioned how shows in Ireland always start late. Some initial problems with her mic seemed to resolve themselves after a bit.
She started off wearing a pair of slightly mucky-looking walking shoes.. telling us how she'd gone on an "imram", a "journey" in Ancient Irish, looking for ancient Irish myths. And specifically, female-based ones, in honour of St. Brigid's Day being made a bank holiday this year - the first in honour of a woman! The shoes were swiftly discarded though, and she performed barefoot, as usual.
Yes, better - less of a distraction from the words she was speaking. Mind you, for all that her profession - and performance - depend on words, she's very much a physical storyteller, contorting her face and body to bring the stories to life. And always with that bit of humour, that twinkle in the eye..
We started with the most excellent story of the first law in Ireland. Now, poetry was hugely important in Ancient Ireland - and so, when invoked in this tale, the truth of a poem was held in the highest esteem. In short, a King goes off hunting, leaving the Queen at home alone. She takes notice of one of his followers.. when the King returns, he realises she's had this man in the house, drinking his beer, and correctly surmises they've slept together. She is unrepentant. He calls the druid to decide whether she's committed a crime. She quotes a poem to him - and I wish I could remember it properly, but it's something along the lines of "a cat will take the cream.." etc. i.e. she was left in temptation's way, and it ain't her fault. The druid holds the poem to be the truth, and says she has committed no crime.
We also had a story of Cú Chulainn, the great Irish hero - but one where he wasn't the protagonist! No indeed, this story centres on Scáthach, a great Scottish warrior, to whom he goes to train, on the Isle of Skye. Now, this story contains a great battle between them - seems in the original story, it was actually her sister he was fighting. But anyway - the original story, a preface to the Táin, has a different ending to hers, as she explained. In the original version, Cú Chulainn defeats his opponent and makes her do his bidding.
In Clare's version, Scáthach's daughter roasts a deer with hazelnuts, the smell wafts up to where they've been fighting, and they realise they're very hungry. Also, smelling the hazelnuts, which are known as the nut of knowledge, they each think this would be a great way to figure out how to defeat their opponent. So they halt, and go have dinner. Wisdom does indeed come to them as they eat the nuts - they realise they're equally matched, and become allies. And as she said, she got this version from a Skye boatman - and you must trust the man who's ferrying you across the lake.. besides, which version of the story do we need, in these troubled times..? I also loved the possible derivation of the name of the Cuilins, on Skye, from Cú Chulainn's name..
We got a sad tale about Fionn MacCumhail's craneskin bag, a tale of jealousy, where a woman with magic turned her rival. Aoife, into a crane, flying above the earth for 200 years - and when she finally died, she was made into a bag with magic properties. Now, this reminded me very much of the tale of the Children of Lir, who were also turned into birds, and condemned to this life for hundreds of years.. I do wonder whether the stories are connected..
After the break, we finally came to the "Spanking Goddess" - and the only one I recognised! This is where the Tuatha Dé Danann were fighting the Formorians, and sent out the god Dagda - whom the Formorians fed an enormous amount of porridge. On his (careful) way back, a lovely young woman crossed his path - she gave him a most perfect spank, which dislodged the porridge and freed him. And they became lovers.
The night ended with the poignant story of Mish, who, upon discovering her father and brothers slain in battle, went mad.. and secluded herself in the mountains that were eventually named for her. She was eventually saved by the love of a musician..
Kudos to Clare Murphy for digging through the volumes and volumes of ancient mythology, and finding gems that can be transformed to weave magic for audiences. And kudos to her too, for carrying on staunchly despite all the background noise we had to put up with at one point.. this is not the most soundproof of venues! Ah, it's too long since I last saw her perform.. wouldn't have missed this for the world.
We finished at around 10pm. Looking for my way home, Google Maps went slightly bonkers, telling me my direct bus wasn't due until around midnight! Nonsense - I went to the stop anyway, and got one by half past.. and oh joy, this was the first bus I've been on lately where the heating was on full blast!
On Monday, I'm thinking film again.. Curzon Bloomsbury yet again, and I'm finally getting to May December, in which Natalie Portman plays an actor portraying Julianne Moore, who got involved with an underage boy, and has now married him. Based on a true story, except they've changed her profession from being his teacher to being the owner of the pet store where he worked. Supposed to be nice and disturbing. Not selling out though, so I haven't booked yet. Site seems to be down anyway, at time of writing.
The rest of the week is theatre - none of which was listed on the Meetup page when I did a search for each day! I had to look on the individual group pages to find these, knowing that these are busy groups. So, the next two days, I'm finally back with Up in the Cheap Seats, and on Tuesday it's for Backstairs Billy, a comedy set in 1979, based on a real character, a page to the late Queen Mother, played by Penelope Wilton. Playing in the Duke of York's Theatre. (Wonder whether they'll have real corgis..?)
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