Poetry - The Art of Language

Hello again you beautiful people. My goodness it has been a while. I do still exist and all is well on my side of the screen; my apologies for being absent from this blog for a year. I became full time at Danny's Dream and also completed the final stage of training as a Local Preacher, so I am now fully accredited. As you can imagine, I have not had a huge amount of time on my hands. 

I have thus not been able to do much writing or blogging, though I have been reading a lot. In other news, I am now on Twitter as @LizJackface. Not much else has changed for me, though I know some of my fellow bloggers have had a much more eventful year.

What I wanted to talk about today is poetry. It is one of those things that is like Marmite; most people either love it or hate it. Many of us were force fed the stuff at school (poetry, not Marmite) and were expected to dissect it in a similar fashion to biology lessons with frogs and pigs eyes. It is understandable why this experience left many people detesting poetry. 

Other people just don't like poetry. This is fair enough. 

I would like to talk about my experiences with poetry and why I feel it can be a highly therapeutic, expressive and releasing art form to engage in, both as a producer and a consumer. 

I first came across poetry from children's poetry collection books that were bought for me. One of the first favourite poems that I remember was called 'The Friendly Cinnamon Bun' by Russell Hoban. What I liked about this poem was the description and personification of the bun - I found myself both hungry and charmed by this character. The words make you lick your lips and imagine sinking your teeth into the sticky icing. I also felt a little for the friendly bun, and felt a weird sense of betrayal when he gets eaten by the protagonist. It was a short, simple story told beautifully by concise, well thought out words. I have always been a slow and impatient reader, you see. I resent wading through a load of words unless they really mean something. In that respect, poetry hit the spot. 

Another poem I remember from primary school was 'Chocolate Cake' by Michel Rosen. This poem was written to be performed. One of our teachers, Mr Brown, did a fantastic performance of it with all the voices and actions and tension, and he used to perform it in assemblies. It was everyone's favourite and we often requested it. By the time I left primary school I could almost recite every word. Again, one of the things I loved about the poem was the vivid description of the yummy cake (I did like my food...) and the way the story was told so imaginatively. Here is a link to Michel Rosen himself performing the piece. 

I used this poem recently in a service for my children's address during lent - it makes a great analogy for temptation. 

I remember a writing exercise in primary school where we had to personify the wind; we had to choose a 'character' for the wind and write about it as though it were that character. This exercise was so much fun to do. I already loved creating characters and descriptive writing and I had so much fun writing about the wind as this mischievous character. 

I could tell you my life story in the context of poetry. I realise I'm beginning to go down that line. Needless to say, poetry has always been very important to me. As I became more inquisitive and interested in philosophy, I began to write this into a kind of expressive poetry. 

I discovered along the way that the beauty of poetry is that it isn't all about rhymes. It's about how you feel. It's about the patterns of words you can't express in prose, sensibly or formally. I think poetry was really unlocked for me when I started to use it as an expressive tool - when I began to pour my inner feelings into it. I won two competitions as a kid, one of which was published in one of those awful anthologies that only family members ever saw. 

What made these poems so special and so powerful was that I wrote about the feelings I couldn't talk about normally. It became therapeutic, an outlet for the things I couldn't say.

I've never been one to go by the rules in poetry. This has perhaps stunted my competition career, but quite frankly I don't care. I don't write poetry for other people anymore. At the most, it helps me to convey to others how I feel. I recently (in the last few years) entered a poem to Writers' Forum magazine and asked for a critique as well. Of course, I did not win, and the feedback would have been useful. But I decided there and then that that was the last poem I would likely enter. My feelings aren't there to be marked. 

So, when the minister of our church announced a poetry competition he was running for the local community, I was both excited and terrified. I was excited and wanted to be involved in some way, but nervous because of my decision about competitions. I was relieved when he asked me to be a judge, as a Creative Writing graduate, because I can still be involved and part of this exciting venture. 

I'm very excited to see the entries we get. My perspective as a judge will not be based in structure and form but in language and expression. The competition is for those in the Newland area in Hull and closes July 31st 2014. I will let you know how it all goes. 

What are your thoughts and views on poetry? Do you like it or loathe it? 

What were your first encounters with poetry like? 

Thanks for reading. It's good to be back. 

Planning

My current task for my novel is reviewing and planning. It feels like a really big task and I'm beginning to realise how big a project I have given myself, but I think I am starting to draw some order from the chaos. 

To the left is a picture of some of my sugar paper  plans - they are A2 so I have plenty of room to fit everything on. The first is space for the main premise - the story idea, the setting and the protagonist. The idea was to get it all down onto paper in some form of visible plan to see what adds up an what doesn't, what works and what doesn't. 

Then the second is called 'story remedies'. This is essentially my idea edit. I've done a lot of free writing for his novel, working with the setting, the characters and the story ideas and themes, and though it is nowhere near where I want the story to be, it has given me a feel for all these things, given me an idea of what works. From there, I can address the plot holes, the character problems, the things which just don't make the story flow.  

It's funny - in figuring out the problems and thinking of solutions, I have, for many of them, returned to some of my original ideas from years ago, particularly with the protagonist. She has become too innocent, too simple, too whiny. Looking at the character as she is in my free writing, I have realised she is boring. She is not a strong heroine, but she has every potential to be. And I seem to have missed out half of the conflicts originally in her character, and conflicts drive a story forwards. 

So I am finding this approach to be very helpful in purifying the chaos of ideas and refining the raw free writing. 

What planning tools do you find helpful? 

Lost In Translation

I have just finished reading a book of short stories called ‘The Elephant Vanishes’ by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. It was written in Japanese originally and I read the English translation.

Overall, I thought the book was good, though a little odd a times, with elements of the surreal weaving through each story. This was mostly in the form of magical realism – surreal or imagined things presented as perfectly regular.

I like magical realism for the most part – it can be fun or poignant, or both at the same time. My criticism of the book is that many of the stories seem to end abruptly, or have an odd structure to them. I also found the central protagonist in each story to be much the same character – young man, womaniser, drinks a lot of beer. I don’t know whether this link was intentional, but it didn't work for me. If it was intentional, it wasn’t obvious. If it wasn’t intentional, I shouldn't have noticed it.

There were a few occasions where I wondered if my confusion or lack of understanding of an undertone or hidden meaning may have been lost in translation. For example, one of the stories made use of the word ‘kit-chin’, italicised to emphasise the spelling. Having studied Japanese, I understand how some western words are adapted to fit with Japanese pronunciation, so I presumed that was what was going on, though I was unsure why there was an emphasis. Later, it transpires, another person in the dialogue says ‘kitchen’, and the writer identifies that she used the Japanese word. The person is corrected, as this particular firm like to use the English word ‘Kit-chin’. You can see why this particular part of the story didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. However, I think the translator probably did the best they could while keeping the integrity and original meaning of the story intact.

It made me think of other works I have read in an English translation rather than the original text, for example, Jostein Gaarder. Jostein Gaarder, author of Sophie’s World, is a Norweigan writer whose work has been translated into English  among many other languages. I began to think about how much work the translator had to do on his books because of the many deep philosophical concepts, ideas and metaphors that won’t translate directly or easily. I’ve always felt the depth and philosophy in Jostein Gaarders translated works shows that little, if any, can have been lost in translation. But it occurs to me – how would I ever know?

Which brings me to one of my old lecturers, Dr Mariau, who taught a module in Metaphysical fiction. He is French, but speaks fluent English, as well as a fair few other languages. This gives him an advantage in translated works, because he has enough understanding of each language to gauge what is lost through translation. We studied The Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille (I don’t recommend unless you have a strong stomach and a very, very open mind). The version we read was a bad translation from the French according to him. He said that the language used in the translation changed a lot of the impact and focus of the story, making it a lot more explicit. 

So how far do you think the quality of translation affects a story? Do we give enough credit to the translators of works we know and love?

An Evening with Peter V Brett

Yesterday evening, I had the privilege of meeting and chatting with Peter Brett, author of The Demon Cycle books. As you may have gathered so far in this blog, I am a very big fan of his, so it meant a lot to me to finally meet the man himself. 

Peter Brett is currently on a UK tour, which started yesterday at Waterstones Deansgate in Manchester with the event 'An Evening with Peter V Brett'. The date was added as an extra to the tour due to high demand, and I think I can safely say Peat did not regret it. The turnout was great and the event sold out. Peat told us it was his biggest crowd so far (from the US tour). 

Rob and I with Peat

Rob and I made a day of it, took time off work and headed to Manchester around lunchtime. We spent a lot of time in Forbidden Planet geeking out, and of course, in Waterstones. It is an impressive bookshop, far bigger than our one in Hull; it even has 3 floors. 

I found myself in my element, sat on the floor in the philosophy section flicking through books. I love a good bookshop. It’s just not quite the same, visiting Amazon and clicking a few buttons.

We were lucky enough to get front row seats. I say lucky – we had been lingering on the first floor of Waterstones for an hour and a half. We had spotted many other lingerers clutching copies of The Daylight War, so were slowly edging our way towards the door. There was a point at which a collective decision was made. We needed a queue. Things were not quite tidy enough, and a queue materialised in a matter of seconds. Rob and I were third in the queue, and thus, we ended up in the front row. Forgive me, but as a Brit, I love a good story about a queue.

We got chatting to some of the people around us – one guy called Robert had come from Germany, though it had been a happy coincidence as he didn’t know about the signing before. It was lovely to be around so many of Peat’s fans.

When Peat arrived, he seemed very excited that so many of us had turned up and took a picture of us all on his iPad to show his Mum he had a ‘real’ job. You can find this picture on his Facebook page (though unfortunately, rob and I were cut out.)

Myself with Peat

Then he did a Q and A, which was absolutely brilliant. Everyone asked decent questions, and he gave fluid, detailed answers to each of them. Questions ranged from ‘What do you like to read,’ to ‘If, God forbid, anything happened to you, who, if anyone, would you trust to finish your books?’

I would love to break down each question specifically and detail his responses, though this would a) take hours to write and read and b) require a much higher memory capacity than the one fitted in my brain. I guess this is why I am not a journalist.

So I will instead give an overview of what I remember and what I took away from his answers.

Peat began by speaking about what books he likes to read, and told us how George R.R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series had changed a lot about the way he looked at writing.

Brett uses several different points of view in his books, and he spoke a little about how this came about; the story was originally from one POV only, and it became clear that this would not work for the story. It helps keep the story going to introduce a fresh perspective every now and then, and also gave him a break from each character as he wrote.

He also spoke about some of his other works, including the novellas, Brayan's Gold and The Great Bazaar, The comic Red Sonja:Unchained, and a short story featured in an anthology called Unfettered, put together by Shawn Speakman. This is due to be released in the Spring, which I am very excited about. There are many other great authors in there too.

Peat was also asked some questions about how he writes, which of course had me listening very intently. He explained how much detailed planning goes into each of his books, including bulleted summaries of each chapter and an ending in mind. He always knows where it's going, and will not set out with a story until he does, because he finds that free writing presents the danger of 'writing yourself into a corner'. He made it very clear, however, that this is how it works for him; there are those for whom free writing works, however it has been his experience that the key to a story is knowing what it is leading up to. 

Signing

I plucked up the courage to ask him a question myself. Rob had challenged me to come up with a good question and ask him. Sounds simple, I know, but this is the kind of opportunity I have often missed in my life through hesitation and nervousness. This time, I did myself proud. 
The question I asked him was this; 

'Do you remember the point at which writing became more than just a hobby - the point at which it all became real for you?'

He had been writing for a while and had a few pieces in the works including draft of a novel. Working in publishing at the time, he became friends with an agent, who, upon hearing he had work he hadn't shown anyone, thoroughly told him off. 'You don't decide if something's not good enough, I tell you if something's not good enough,' he had said. So he looked over Peat's work and did just that. The novel draft got completely rewritten and, though I am cutting out some of the story, is now The Painted Man. 

I think he must have twigged why I asked, because he went on to give some writing advice; don't be put off by the rejected work that will never see the light of day. It is not wasted time, it is practice. The key to any craft is practise, practise, practise. It will be hard work, but by the time you do get published, you know it will be good quality because of the hard work that got you to that point.

Hearing advice like that from someone you respect and admire has a way of making it really sink in.

Peat signed books after that, making time to have a nice long chat with each person too. He is such a humble, down-to-earth guy, but 100% confident in his work. Someone asked him if he had any regrets about any of his work, and he said he wouldn't have let it go to print if he wasn't 100% sure about it. Quite right too. 

I took every single book by him that I own, and bless the man, he signed them all. What a lovely man. 

I have been so inspired by meeting such a great writer and a wonderful man, and have taken so much home with me (as well as all my signed books). This has been the boost I've needed.

So thank you, Peat, for an absolutely brilliant evening.

You can check out Peat's blog about the event over at his Peephole. 

Me in my 'jamas with all my signed books. This was a good night.

* All photos taken by my lovely husband Rob on his iPhone (except the one he's in, taken by Topher Knowles.)

Pushing Forward

My manuals, which thudded through the door...

Last time I spoke about reassessing my life; well the biggest outcome of that reassessing is that writing has been brought very much into the foreground again. There was a moment a few years back at which I declared to myself  that I was serious about writing; that it wasn't going to be 'just a hobby' as everyone had always told me it would. Well, I may be into the second wave now. 

Why should writing be a footnote to my life while I work a 'real job'? 

So I have been writing something every day, not just on my novel, but gathering ideas for short stories, composing letters to companies and that sort of thing as well. I have been making sure I have time for me every day, even if it is sat up in bed with my laptop. 

But, perhaps the biggest outcome of this reassessment is that I applied to a Chapterhouse course for Proofreading and Copy Editing. Some of you may have heard of them. The course came through my door with a thud and it's all very exciting. 

You see, I figure at the very least, I will come away from the course having learned how to refine and improve my own writing. But other than that, it's a starting point for applying for jobs in the publishing industry, which you can't just walk into. 

Does anyone have any experience of this course? If so, how have you found it? 

I'll let you know how I get on.

Sky Arts

I have discovered the Sky Arts channel. After hearing that I had failed my interview for a permanent contract with my company, where I've been for a year and a half now, Google and I sat down to reassess my life. This, of course, needs background telly. 

I flicked through the channels, hoping to find something other than endless repeats of Friends (though there is nothing wrong with endless repeats of Friends), and I noticed a program called 'Screenwriting Lecture Series'. I stuck it on.

It was really interesting and helpful - BAFTA and Sky Arts had got together to create a series of lectures by various screenwriters, sharing their experience and giving advice about screenwriting. The first was lead by William Nicholson (writer of Gladiator), and his words were very interesting and inspiring. 

He talked about the role and responsibility of the screenwriter, bursting the illusion that they 'just write dialogue'. He spoke about the importance of knowing characters well in order to really capture their emotions and let us in on his personal trick of always knowing the ending before he starts to write. He spoke very strongly and passionately about the discipline of writing, which I really needed to hear.

The series was actually first broadcast in August last year, but it looks like they are repeating it on Thursdays. I thought I would mention it, if anyone has access to Sky, and hasn't already seen it, it might be worth a look. 

Re-emergance

Hello all. It has been a very long time. Unfortunately, in the big juggling game called life, the ball that gets dropped the most is writing. I've decided I'm not happy about that. So I'm trying to fix it.

For the past few months, my writing has been a bit of a wasteland, writing one or two lines a week on my novel if it's lucky. I'v decided I'm going to do something I did last year for a while - committing to writing for 10 minutes every day. It doesn't sound like a lot, which is why the psychology is good. When it's a word count, or a longer period of time, I am less likely to do it because there is so much other stuff that *has* to be done.

10 minutes is easy. And it's progress. So in the sight of whoever has not yet given up on my blog, I declare my commitment to 10 minutes writing per day. No going back now.

I have good news, though. In the wasteland of my writing mind, today I found an oasis. An idea has been trickling through my thoughts for a few weeks now, and today it crystalised into a story. I have been writing for 3 hours, and I now have a first draft of a short story. This rarely happens for me.

I want to tell you the story of the story. I walk to work most days, and a fair few of my shifts require me to go down The Avenues. These are a series of interconnected streets between Chanterlands Avenue and Princes Avenue in Hull. As I was walking one morning, I noticed some rosemary on the path. Not just a little bit, as if someone had dropped some, a lot of rosemary. It trailed along the path for a long stretch. there were heaps of the stuff about as well, all over the avenues.

I couldn't stop thinking about the rosemary. I found it really odd. Why would there be a trail of rosemary? There must be a story behind it. I've seen trails of blood down Newland Avenue before, and it doesn't take much imagination to work out the story behind that. Sometimes you see a trail of sand or compost, where the bag must have torn without anyone realising.

But rosemary? I couldn't imagine anybody carrying enough rosemary to drop that much. Rosemary isn't something one generally carries about by the armful.

I imagined somebody carrying a rosemary plant down the avenues and started to think about what would drive somebody to do that. Today, a story was born.

It sounds odd, I know. It may not even be any good. But I wrote it, and I'm proud. it ha been far too long.

Anyway, I will try to blog more often, to let you know how my 10 minute writing plan is going, and if anything becomes of this little story.

Bag Books: Beyond Paper and Words

Our experience of reading is quite straightforward - we go into a bookshop or library, buy or borrow a book, find a comfortable chair and immerse ourselves in the world created by the words.

However, for many people, this experience is not easy or straightforward. For people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, the words read from a book alone mean little. For some, even the pictures hold no interest. So, should we write off books as an experience some of our fellows just can't have?

'The Captain's Hat'

I was made aware of a charity called Bag Books through an appeal on radio 4 back in May. Bag Books have a team of people creating a different kind of storybook for those who cannot enjoy a traditional book. The books themselves are unbound large pieces of card, each page with a different object that represents that part of the story. Specially trained storytellers read each page, whilst involving each person individually with the object. This can mean assisting someone to push a button, feel a texture or produce a sound.

Through this wonderful charity, children and adults with learning disabilities can experience the world of a story in a way that is engaging, fun, and encourages personal development.

The other day, I was reading a story to a client. The book had pictures, which she was quite interested in, though her eyesight hindered her a little. So I encouraged her to feel the textures of the pictures, used different tones to communicate the atmosphere of the story and made some of the sounds in the story. She loved getting involved with the story using her other senses. It's amazing how the way in which you present a story can have such a profound effect on how it is received.

This experience made me realise just how important people like Bag Books are. They provide awareness of the needs of those with learning disabilities whilst also providing for them and bringing alive the story telling world. Visit them at www.bagbooks.org and see for yourself the wonderful work they do.

Foody Friday: Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

This soup is a good winter warmer, and a 'feel-better' soup that will kick the cold right out of you. Sweet potatoes contain beta carotene which is good for the immune system, and red pepper also contains vitamin C, well known for it's antioxidant qualities.

These quantities can be varied according to how much soup you want. I'm a big believer of making soup in bulk, then, once cooled, freezing it in portions for a quick, easy, late-home-from-work meal.  

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:

1 Red Pepper, sliced and seeded

1 Medium Sweet Potato, peeled and diced

Half a large onion (or 1 small one), finely chopped

Vegetable stock

Oil to fry

Paprika

Chilli powder

Black pepper

1. Prepare the vegetables s directed.

2. Heat the oil in a big saucepan and fry the onions for about 3 minutes, then add the pepper. Fry for a further 4-5 minutes.

3. Add the diced potato to the pan and fry just for a couple of minutes while you make up the stock in a jug.

4. Remove the pan from the heat before adding the stock to the pan, to avoid spitting of hot, angry oil, burnt pans and fires. I speak from experience.

5. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a low heat and leave to simmer for 20-25 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent anything sticking to the bottom.

6. When the vegetables are tender, turn off the heat and leave to stand for a few minutes. Blend in a liquidiser until the soup is smoothe.

7. Season with pepper, chilli powder and paprika to taste, depending on how spicy you want it, then blend it again.

8. Transfer back into the saucepan and heat again for a few minutes before serving.

Best served with some nice crusty bread, or brie toast.

The Modern Rewrite

How cute is my dragon?

One of the most used exercises in creative writing classes is the modern rewrite - taking a classic story, myth or legend and rewriting it in a modern setting. We were given this as one of our first tasks at University, and I still have the half-written story I came up with. I wrote about Argus, the giant with a hundred eyes, as a modern-day security guard. With this sort of story there is naturally some level of humour in the principal, which I found by giving Argus a short, tubby, ordinary human partner. He offers charisma. And doughnuts.

Of course, there have been several rewrites and modern interpretations of old myths and fairytales in the film world recently; There was Red Riding Hood, Mirror Mirror and Snow White and The Huntsman, and Beastly.

I write about this because I am currently working on my Local Preacher Course unit assignment, which calls for us to write a parable of sorts, reviving the modern message that can be taken from a Bible passage.

We have also previously studied Narrative Sermons, which is one of my particular favourites. You take a story from the Bible, choose one of the characters (the least noticed or thought about the better) and rewrite the whole thing from their perspective. These go down really well in family and evening services.

Anyway, I digress slightly. One of the books on our reading list for Uni was 'the Seven Basic Plots' by Christopher Booker. Now a lot of people were outraged, even offended by the suggestion that most if not all stories written follow one of 7(ish) basic plots. Surely we are more original than that?

But we can't deny that most of our stories have a particular structure to them, and a lot of the tried-and-tested basic plots that work well crop up again and again. Detective novels do it quite shamelessly. 

Because the fact is that so much can be done within the basic structure, and if the basic structure works, why not use it? 

And this, I believe is why many of these classic stories keep rearing their heads - because they work. They capture storytelling at it's best. 

Do we need to keep updating these classic stories? Surely, they are classic for a reason, and work best in the setting in which they were first written. However, kept as they are, many modern-day readers/film watchers would not be able to relate or understand the true meaning or depth of the story. This, of course, is most prominent when talking about modernising parables. We modernise them to introduce the ideas, messages and lessons into the world in which we live, not one we only read about. It brings the story to life for us.

So, what do you think?

Hitting The Books

Many apologies for my two week absence. I have had a stressful week, but I' here now. 

As a writer, research is one of our most valuable tools. Our research informs what we write and provides essential materials for building the world of our stories. 

Unfortunately, I am terrible at it. 

I find that I'm much more likely to dive straight into a story, getting to know my characters a weaving yarn, which is lovely. Which is fine.

But I've reached a point now where I realise, particularly whilst writing a fantasy novel, the importance of research. It is what makes the world and its people believable. 

So I feel it is time to hit the local library and draw on its variety of resources. I have also been reading up on the books I own myself, stepping back and looking at story structure, world building and the shape of the plot.

The trouble is I'm struggling to know where to start. I want to read history books and look at customs and culture of different time periods, different countries, but I can't carry an entire shelf of books home with me. But, I keep telling myself, I need to be patient. Rome wasn't built in a day, and nor is a good novel. 

I have recently finished reading Patrick Rothfuss's 'The Wise Man's Fear', and I have now got half way through George R.R. Martin's 'A game of Thrones.' 
You can imagine how intimidated I am feeling. These books and series are epic - The Wise Man's Fear quite literally. The book weighs a tonne. 
I can't begin to imagine how much research and time went into those books. And it paid off. 

So. Stop whining, Nari, and get on with it. That, I believe, is what Patrick Rothfuss would say. 

Many people have recommended Stephen King's 'On Writing', So I might track it down to hep me out. Are there any other good books or research advice anyone can suggest? 

Foody Fridays: Grandma's Garlic Potatoes

I have attempted to recreate my Grandma’s famous potato side-dish, since I was unable to find a recipe in amongst all her cookbooks. It is really simple, and a good alternative to roast potatoes.

Garlic Potatoes

Serves 2                      Cooking Time: 30 Mins

Ingredients:

3 or 4 medium sized potatoes, peeled

300ml of vegetable stock

2 tablespoons margarine or butter

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely chopped

½ teaspoon rosemary or sage

Pepper to season

Method:

1.  Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/220°C.

2. Thinly slice the potatoes so they are roughly half a centimetre thick, then lay them out in a casserole/oven-proof dish. They should be slightly overlapping each other.

3. Make up the stock and pour it over the potatoes, making sure they are not swimming.

4. To make the garlic butter, mix together the margarine, garlic and rosemary, then drop several spoonfuls over the potatoes, so that it will cover them all when it melts.

5. Season with pepper to taste, then place high up in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until  most of the liquid is gone and the potatoes are starting to crisp on top.

 Please let me know what you think. Also, any feedback on the format or phrasing of the recipe would be appreciated. Thanks, and enjoy!

 Next Week: Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

A Modern Mystery...

Before I say a single word, I would like you to watch this trailer for the York Mystery Plays 2012. It says a lot and gives you a glimpse at just how powerful and breathtaking the experience is:

At the weekend, my parents visited us in Hull to celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary. A big congratulations to them both - let's all raise our proverbial glasses. I've learned so much about marriage from my parents and I owe them a lot.

To celebrate, they booked the four of us tickets to see the York Mystery Plays, which are particularly special this year because it is York's 800th Anniversary.

If I'm honest, when I'd first heard of it, I didn't really know what it was. So let me fill you in:

A Rich History

The Mystery Plays are part of a Medieval tradition in York. They began as 50 separate short plays, each telling a story from the Bible. They were performed annually in the open air by local craft guilds, each responsible for a different play. This tradition is recorded for two hundred years until the English Reformation suppressed the plays. 

But the plays live on with the tradition, and 50 plays have been made into one by writer Mike Kenney.

(c) Allan Harris

This year's production was a collaboration of the York Theatre Royal, The Riding Lights Theatre Company and the York Museums Trust. All involved can be very proud of what was achieved. 

The Setting

This year, the plays were brought into the Museum Gardens, and the stage was built in St Mary's Abbey, which provided a wonderful backdrop to the performance. On the main website, you can find a video of the stage being built, which is definitely worth a look. 

The stage was Open Air, which I think is one of the best ways to do theatre, and particulary this play, as it called for a natural setting.  My Drama-Graduate husband informs me that the stage was 'thrust', which means that there were audience on three sides of the stage. There were entrances all around the audience, as well as coming up from beneath the stage - very useful and powerful for the representation of Hell.

The Play

Saturday 4th August, Matinee

Before I get too technical, I want to say that this performance absolutely took my breath away. In spite of the weather, the cast carried the story with such passion and such skill. There was not a single moment, not even when the heavens opened and the director shuffled the cast backstage to procure some very trendy waterproof ponchos, when I was the least bit disappointed, disconnected or any less than 100% involved in the story being told. I could not stop thinking about it. There were so many theological points raised, simply by who was where at a certain moment, even by the simplest action of placing a hand on a shoulder. 

(c) Allan Harris

As we were all fidgeting and getting comfortable, commenting on how sunny this side of the stage was and that we weren't sure if our faces could take 3 hours of direct and unrelenting sun, a man in a tan trenchcoat casually walked onto the stage and began writing excitedly in chalk. 

My first thought was a scientist on the verge of cracking a theory, a mathemetician working out the missing calculations, or an artist planning out some great design. 

It was, of course, a timeless God with an epic idea, working it out with as much excitement as all of the above. This portrayal of God made me smile right from the first second because it was just so fitting. 
Ferdinand Kingsley played the role of God and later, Jesus, and in that, they had cast incredibly well. He had the air of excitement, interest, love and humour, but also of deep hurt and anger, caused first by the rebellion of Satan and the angels, then by humanity, whom he had also created. 
He had the audience with him every step, and during the heavy rain, he had this smile on his face which made us all smile with him and laugh freely at the liberation in the image of him stood in the rain speaking of new life and being washed clean through his resurrection.

(c) Allan Harris

Satan, also, was cast fantastically well. He was played by Graeme Hawley, most famously known for his role as John Stape in Coronation Street. He played the opportunist, silently watching and waiting. In almost every scene, he was lurking, just watching, or whispering in somebody's ear. 

There was an eerie presence to the character, and he would show up in places you weren't looking or expecting to find him. At the Fall of Man, he did not appear as a snake, or some other beastly representation of evil, but as a friendly looking gardener. 

He appeared constantly, handing out stones to the crowds before Jesus tells them it is not for them to judge, whispering into the ear of Herod's wife, placing a hand on the shoulder of Judas. All these subtle things carried huge theological weight, and there are so many debates I could get into. 

Whatever was the main focus of the play at any given point, I was always scouting for Satan, just to see what he was doing.

(c) Allan Harris

The angels gave an interesting modern take, not clad in white lace and silk with halos and wings, but wearing very brightly coloured outfits with wide skirts that span as they danced. They also formed the rainbow after the flood as Noah and his family sailed to safety. 

As I mentioned before, the weather was it's own character in this play as well. Open Air Theatre always runs the risk of rain, snow or thunderstorms, but I felt that the cast rode with the weather so beautifully. In the first half, our side of the audience got sunburnt, and then in the second half, a cloud rescued us. The cloud grew darker and darker with the story, and was a heavy, ominous grey as Jesus died on the cross. During the Harrowing of Hell, the heavens opened and it absolutely bucketed down. It was so appropriate; Jesus stood tall, arms outstretched saying 'Let my people go!' with the rain hammering down poignantly. I had shivers running down my spine when all the cages of hell fell to the floor and Satan retreated into the depths of Hell from the power of Jesus' command. 

The cast soldiered on through the rain, not even blinking or skipping a beat in their lines, but it was at the point where nobody could hear or see, so the director had to apologise and shuffle everyone off to dry off. The performance commenced after 5 minutes, by which time the rain had stopped. And not for a second was anything about the play ruined, if anything, the rain made it more powerful. 

The Writing

The language used in the script was very archaic, and worked almost in Rhyming couplets. In this sense, the whole thing felt like an epic poem, with cast and characters to get behind the words and bring them to life. It had an almost Shakespearean feel to it, which was appropriate given the history and tradition of the plays. 

I liked that Mike Kenny had stuck with this type of language, keeping the plays closer to the original texts. The delivery of the cast was so good that the writing sounded beautiful and natural, and wove the story together like a powerful thread. 

 I Recommend.

Needless to say, I highly recommend this play. At first, I was not sure what to expect, and I was so impressed by the experience I was given. The York Mystery Plays are running until the27th August 2012 - pay a visit to the Website and book your tickets now. You will love it.

I would like to say a big thank you to Allan Harris for letting me use his spectacular photos in this post. You can find more of his work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/allan_harris/. All images posted here belong to Allan Harris and are used with permission from him.