Storytelling: Agni & Amor

Today, hosted my first ever Meetup event, woo! (Third in a series of six Meetups.) It was with London Museums A-Z (LoMAZ), and hey, it's where I've finally found an outlet to advertise storytelling, which regular readers will know that I love. So, this was a Crick Crack Club (CCC) event, which I was going to anyway - it was Agni & Amor: Tales of Love & Fire, and happening in The Master Shipwright's House. Ben Haggarty and Steph Brittain were performing, but there was also music and food - a real end-of-summer festival. Pity rain was promised. Part of the Thames Festival Trust. We were to meet in the Dog and Bell beforehand, and optionally afterwards as well. A lot of newbies signed up to come to this one - tickets sold out in advance, and I did worry about people having got them in time.

One person did get in touch to say they were passionate about storytelling, but had been too late for a ticket - I couldn't help, but advised them to check the CCC website for future events. And, BTW, reassured them that I'd be hosting more storytelling in the future. Meantime, I brought something to sit on, in case I needed it - the venue had advised that there'd be a variety of seating, including on the ground. My buses were both very prompt today, I must say, and I arrived early at the pub.. which was what you could only call rammed.. they were hosting a cider and sausage festival. They had four portaloos outside. The front was rammed, the inside was rammed, the beer garden was rammed. I gave up, and messaged the group (and the two people who'd signed up to the WhatsApp) that the pub wasn't an option. Made my way to the venue anyway, snapped a picture to send them - we'd be meeting there now.

Now, I'd been planning to eat at the pub, so I had to make alternative arrangements - finally decided just to walk to Greenwich, which was doable, and head to the Nando's there. 

I did actually pass The Sail Loft en route, and considered eating there instead. Got myself a table.. nobody took any notice of me, and there wasn't even a food menu, although I'd read one on the way in. With a sparsity of staff, I asked AI how slow service was - and when the answer came back that customers reported a wait of 45 minutes or more for mains, I gave up and continued to Nando's. Where I was served extremely quickly.

Heading back to the venue, I saw the gate was open and people were starting to be processed. Got chatting to someone ahead of me in the queue, who was curious about my LoMAZ badge.. a potential new member?

That's the food stall on the left - mind you, I was to be glad I'd eaten beforehand, when I saw the queue! The event site was around the corner - and yay, they had erected a tent to protect us, and had, as promised, a variety of seating - I took a bench with a back, to save mine, but there were also backless benches, chairs, cushions, and rugs that hardly anyone used:

One of my group ended up right behind me, the other - who brought a guest - arrived a little later. We all sat near each other. Have to say, they were all lovely - and new to storytelling. (Ah, lovely to spread the word..)

In such an open venue, with so many people scattered about, the horn that Ben used to call for people to assemble for the show to start was to prove useful!

He started proceedings with a fascinating reworking of the creation story, with the emotions having been created before the humans had been created to contain them.. so they roamed free.. it was really funny, but the whole point, given the theme of the story, was that love is blind and led by madness..

It's ages since I saw Steph perform - and I'd forgotten how she tends to incorporate singing and dancing in her routines. She told a really powerful and moving story about Mish, who develops the ability to shapeshift after her beloved father is killed in battle against Fionn MacCumhail (some Irish mythology coming in, nice!). She gave her name to the Sliabh Mish mountains. In a tragic twist to other versions of the story, she is also to lose the man who shows her how to love again.. only a storyteller who truly throws herself into the story can make it so intense.

At the interval that followed, she urged us to share with another person the proverbs we'd been asked to pick from a box on the way in. Mine was interesting:

Still wondering how to interpret that..

We had a 40-minute interval, during which a couple of us went for drinks, the others for food.. have to say, their white wine wasn't terrific, but well, it was all they had, so..

Throughout, and punctuating every act, we had mood music:

The general consensus was that this lady was singing in Welsh:

After the interval, and as darkness fell, Ben treated us to the legend of the Blacksmith at the Bridge of Bones! Fantastic - I'd booked a streaming ticket for a performance of this, and never did get around to listening to it. With tall people in front of me, I took to watching shadows of him on the wall:

As night fell, the lights came into their own - apologies for the blurred image, the camera couldn't figure out the focus on this:

After Steph finished us off with a sexually explicit Hindu tale to do with the origin of the kama sutra (this was strictly for over-18s, and her performance induced much tittering), there was a closing address - during which the speaker was grateful that it hadn't actually rained. Whereupon, of course, it poured. Mind you, those of us who stayed under the tent, listening to the closing music, were lucky enough to miss it completely!

On my way to catch another bus, I passed the pub, which - sure enough - was still in full swing:

And on the bus home, we passed Southwark Park - where the sold-out Body Movements Festival was just letting out, and disgorging hundreds of very interestingly dressed people onto the streets..

Tomorrow is a bank holiday, so I managed to slot in my friend Helen, who wanted to come visit. We're having a long lunch at Bella Italia Cranbourn Street.

And that evening, and indeed on Tuesday as well, I'm with Up in the Cheap Seats. On Monday, we're at Holy Fool at the Park Theatre. It's the story of Shostakovich, who trod a tricky line living under Stalin.

And on Tuesday, we're seeing How the Other Half Loves, a romcom at the Old Vic. Eating beforehand at Bar + Block Southwark - which looks like to be my last time there, or in any Bar + Block, as the chain is closing down on Thursday!

On Wednesday - I'm hosting another LoMAZ event! This one is part of our Dracula series.. The Nickel is showing Dracula in Istanbul, and I said I'd run an event. Made in 1952, it's apparently the first film to depict Dracula with fangs.. and has Mina as a showgirl! Should be fun. We're headed to The Wilmington afterwards. Some of the Whitby crowd are coming, which will be a nice reunion!

On Thursday, I'm back with CT for Never Let Go, part of the Fringe Fix at Underbelly Boulevard. It's a comedy, one-man, gay retelling of the film Titanic.

And then - with a last-minute reschedule of what I was supposed to be doing - I finally have a weekend free to get back to Ireland, phew! Took me ages to get the flight booked, mind - the Ryanair app was down, I had to use the browser. And both Ryanair and Stansted Express have forgotten my account, I book so seldom any more.. hopefully meeting the friend I usually lunch with when I go back.