In an attempt to take the world of grown up storytelling clubs by storm and continue our tradition of 'telling on the edge', the regulars at Tales from the Undercroft meet on the 2nd November had not just 1, but 2 themes. The first half of the night was devoted to super-short stories, specifically stories that are no longer than 3 minutes. The theme for the second half was Spooky Stories: tales of ghosts, monsters or anything else that makes you think twice about turning out the lights. As Undercroft regular Tall Tale Liam put it....
A challenge was thrown down to the tellers this month - could they find a story that was less than 3 minutes long? Doubts were expressed from the cloistered benches and someone even produced a timepiece ... the challenge was on ... up stepped Rita and immediately drove the doubters from the field with a compelling and emotional tale that provoked a collective heartfelt sigh from the audience at the end. And how long was the story? A mere 5 words. The art of brevity had been established and succeding performers drove home the message that the short tale was not only alive and well, but also full of wit and wisdom. A mysterious hare, a student that had been turned into a donkey by his wicked uncle (or at least that's what the owner of the donkey was duped into believing by the clever students), a master swordsman defeated in combat by an old man with a sharper wit, the woman, who whilst drowning, still managed to get the better of her husband, and the brave Irish champion who inadvertently assisted a corpse in a final spasm of murder and several other colourful characters paraded themselves before our eyes (believe me ...they were there) during the short sharp tale section.
During that emotionally turbulent period all our hearts went out to the inimitable Joy when she took it upon herself to remind the audience, in a tone that would suffer no doubting, that 'all my stories are true'. All the other tellers nodded in agreement, somewhat embarrassed by their own omission of such an important fact in the preambles to their own stories.
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| Laurie Steel telling a tale about a man with no tale to tell. |
Next, when the laughter had ceased and tears were mopped up, we endeavoured to terrify our audience with tales to honour the season, although in truth most of us went for weird, wonderful and in my case just really silly. Trolls, dismembered hands, Death, Youth, sacks of skin and bones, Old Nick, ghouls and ghosts marched like a macabre army out of the bricks, through the audience and headed up the steps toward the bar, leaving the pale-faced audience gripping their glasses tightly in the face of the emphatic visions of the otherworld and it's grim population. It was with both relief and joy that we seized upon moments of applause to spare us from the terror of it all. Perhaps the most chilling story came from Kelly Kanayama who led us down a dark ghost road in Japan to meet the defenceless crying girl whose mouth, eyes and nose slipped from her face when she looked up to greet the drunk in whose company we were in. As the drunk fled the scene he gratefully fell into the company of that old familiar staple of the Japanese street, the noodle seller. As the noodle seller raised his lamp to bring light for the drunk's comfort, Kelly lent forward and gently blew the lamp out, and we were all plunged into the faceless darkness of the haunting child ....you had to be there to see it.
Whilst Tall Tale Liam by his own admission: appeared to be attempting to acquire the mantle of teller of the longest tale by resuming a story that he began three months ago ... the tale of the Fisherman, his Son, and the Sorcerer of Tricks ...and then, at risk of being pelted with rotten fruit (luckily no one had any) proceeded to leave the tale unfinished ... he promised, with the kind of conviction that only a teller of dubious truths can, that the ending would be told at the next Undercroft gathering. Veiled threats were uttered around the room at this violation of storytelling protocol and we've yet to discover whether Liam will make it to the next gathering unscathed.
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| A growing audience at the Undercroft (If you look closely you can see their terrified faces) |
Special thanks to Laurie Steel for getting the whole club under way, many moons ago, in the Workshop and the Black Horse, and making the posters and flyers for the new venue. Also to Jim Kavanagh for his new Undercroft Graphics and to all those who joined us this night. Just to remind you that our next gathering is on the 7th December (7.30 for 8.00 start) with tales of Yule to Misrule. Anyone wanting to tell can email me at theyarnsmith@yahoo.co.uk or put their name down when they arrive.
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