Last night I went along to watch Hannah Need, the Storyteller of Southfields in her show ‘Life, Death and Dreams along the Way’. As part of this year’s Wandsworth Fringe Festival, Hannah put together a wonderful storytelling evening filled with a mixture of true tales, fairy tales and folk tales. Her stories were woven together with memories of her loved ones who have died.
Hannah began the evening with a question for us all: ‘have you ever lost someone you loved?’ Before we could wallow in grief stricken memories, she swiftly answered her own question and shared a few humorous stories that we could relate to.
One of the most memorable parts of the evening for me, was hearing how those who have died, somehow appear in her stories – through dialogue, actions and sometimes the actual characters themselves. Somewhere on her storytelling journey, Hannah’s past had crept into her present.
In her stories, she heard her Dad’s turn of phrase ‘What’s the rush?’ She saw herself rushing to be by her mother’s side in Beauty & the Beast and her son shared his dreamlike story of Grandad which took take shape in another tale. It got me thinking about an earlier storytelling evening I did at Torriano. Somehow my sister who recently died, inspired me to choose certain stories and so I wrote a post about finding our connection with stories.
It was a lovely evening and I’m looking forward to performing alongside Hannah at our next event ‘Tales to Tickle Your Fancy’ on June 10th as part of the Furzedown Festival 2017. Get in touch and book tickets if you’d like to join us. I hope to see you there!