It is very nearly thirty years since I first attended an A Bit Crack story evening and very seldom have I been anything but delighted and inspired. Tonight, the advertised guest storyteller was Kersti Ståbi but we also got a substantial story from Richard Birmingham.
Kersti started, enchanting us with both a sung story and a spoken one. Her energy and engagement set a tone and an energy such that when, suddenly, Richard came to the platform, I had to somehow to reset in order to receive his tale in such a different dynamic. I stress that this is not a review so there is no judgement here. I just remark on the sharp contrast between the two tellers, and that it required quite an adjustment before I could focus on what was going on.
Richard wove together a personal story and a Norse myth. He tells with a rich regard for the sights and sounds around him and draws us into the picture he presents. It is only after he had finished that I began to see the threads of the story and how they hung together. This was engaging and, at the same time, a kind of modest account of ambition unfulfilled for very good reasons.
Kersti’s main story was the tale of Tatterhead, the hairy girl, a story I have been interested in for quite some time, but I have never found a satisfying path to lead me to tell it. Kersti found it to fantastic effect. There is not one teller here, but two, Kersti and her magnificent drum. Her combination of narrative and song works wonderfully well, but when it came to the building of the three masted fully rigged ship and to the battles with the trolls the drum came into its own and painted in detail the whole scene more vividly than if she had put it into words. This was such a good use of the instrument, whether beaten with great wooden sticks or gently with soft sticks or scratched to produce a truly menacing sound. She made it speak as eloquently as she herself did. In other parts of the story she introduced other percussion instruments, all as vital to the tale as her drum. We were carried on a wave of spoken, sung and percussion language that turned this extraordinary story into a potent, coherent and irresistible narrative.
This was an evening to be savoured and remembered. I had a wonderfully new and vivid perception of the story, its characters and their personalities. I went home glowing from the experience. As always, I am grateful to A Bit Crack for its continued presence each month and the treasures it brings us. Thank you.
Martin.