As well as new and old stories i will also be doing something a little different. During August I will be performing preview extracts from Oscar Wilde's last work The Ballad of Reading Gaol. I will be performing the full poem in the Town Hall Theatre on 7th September.
Storytelling is one of the oldest and most powerful ways of sharing wonder, laughter and amazement, of transporting your head, heart and soul to new and incredible dimensions. However, stories can also shine a light on the darker truths of the world around us. The tale Oscar Wilde tells in The Ballad of Reading Gaol is as haunting and troubling as it is beautiful and passionate.
Oscar Wilde wrote the poem in a matter of months while in exile in France after his release from prison in 1897. During his two years in prison, a man was hanged for killing his wife. The poem’s most famous lines “Yet each man kills the thing he loves” were inspired by this incident. As preperation for my performance of the poem I have began writing up some thoughts on it in Goodreads
For details on the Town Hall Show see The Ballad of Reading Gaol
For details on my thursday storytelling sessions see Celtic Tales