Just finished this autumn’s extended county wide tour of Haunted. (See the ‘Ghost Story’ blog). The Border Readers first tour post Covid. Core company readers Grace, Janine and I were joined by guests John Cobb, Stefan Escreet and Roberta Kerr at different venues. Our good friends not only brought read brilliantly, they also offered a different take on the stories and added to our offer as an association of regionally based professional actor/readers.
This year’s story line up featured Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost. I particularly enjoyed reading this classic as it’s one of a rare breed of ghostly tale, combining wit and morality, comedy and satire to fashion the great writer’s own brand of Gothic romance. Originally a novella, I’d edited and abridged the work so it came in at a listenable 45’. A class act from a master storyteller, a delight to read and to hear being read by John at Cherryburn, for the National Trust, and Stefan at Hexham for Northumberland Library Service.
A couple of years ago we premiered Christine Poulson’s short story Safe As Houses, a gripping dystopian take on contemporary living in a smart home. As a result of that collaboration her publisher at Comma Press commissioned another modern horror story for a new anthology. The result was Teeth and Hair which I was delighted to have in the line up for this tour. That 40’ tale of modern unease played out in its isolated rural setting opened our evening’s entertainment.
Elizabeth Bowen’s reputation and popularity is once again in the ascendancy. Her short stories are highly atmospheric and psychologically disturbing narratives, and those set in the Second World War – in which she served as a London fire warden – are particularly powerful. The Demon Lover, written in 1942, is probably her most famous story and one most often admired by other writers of the genre. The shortest of our offerings at 20’ its finale leaves a powerful visual impression and proved the perfect tale to send audiences homewards in the dark.
Bobbie (Roberta) and husband Graeme are amongst my oldest friends and they joined us at Felton village’s Gallery Forty5. It’s a place where we’ve built a following so enjoyed a particularly appreciative full house and afterwards we joined locals in the nearby Foxes Den bar before heading off to our respective homes, cross country. Very glad to have Graeme that night as a passenger – just like Jan on other nights – because they both had GPS systems on their phones. The A1 seemed permanently closed for works, in different places, every time we were travelling back so we were regularly diverted into Newcastle’s suburbs with little idea of where we were going.
Half our ten venues were urban and half rural. We were warmly received and looked after in both and our audiences, small and large, really appreciated what was on offer. With fewer listeners we were able to chat, before, after and in the interval and that added extra pleasure to the experience.
Another plus was seeing the life size sheep at our handful of Northumberland County Library venues, part of the ‘Illuminated Sheep’ art project partnering the Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition at The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle and part of the Hadrian Wall 1900 Festival.
At Ashington the staff creatively dressed and set their sheep in a football setting, reflecting the town’s great footie heritage (This former coal mining village was the home of Jackie Milburn, Bobbie and Jac Charlton). Blyth’s librarians advertised our event with a ‘Rosemary’s Lamb’ in a corner of the fiction library while Bellingham’s ewe was content to simply graze in the limelight on the lawn outside the Town Hall, where we were performing that evening.
STEPHEN TOMLIN 