The Cardiff Fringe Theatre Festival has been the host of three events (this included) that I’ve been to recently, and each of them have all been astoundingly wonderful. Though the festival ends tomorrow, I look forward to its (hopeful) return. I hope it does return, I very sincerely do. I’ve had an incredible time, and seen some doubly incredible things.
Stories For The Silver Tree was one of these incredible things. I went in totally blind (I knew there was a trailer but elected not to watch it – I’ve always liked to go into theatre blind, I’ve found it makes me more open to plots and characters if I don’t look them up first).
The concept of this showing was amazing. I thought it was going to be a play. Like, a traditional, people-play-the-characters play. But it wasn’t. And I think it was better.
Instead of this, it was Tamar Williams and Darius Nash narrating and telling the audience (and singing, too – which was really good and something I enjoyed very much) the story of the main character (Bran). They also used clever sound technology which I’ve never heard of or probably could understand the mechanics of but, at face-value (which is how I tend to take things): It was very impressive and amazing. Using sounds from the audience or from props put on a loop right there and then during the performance to put more depth into a scene is something I’ve not seen before – and I loved it so much. Although, at the mention of audience participation, I did get nervous – but it turned out brilliantly.
The story was also so atmospheric. From the brainy sound tech, yes, but from the writing and the deliverance, I think for the last few hours I’ve been somewhere else; lost in pretty words and lovely scenery up in my head. That’s irreplaceable to me. I love and have always loved things that can make me feel like this. One phrase that stuck out to me was, “the turquoise of evening and the navy of night”. These words just fit together so nicely, and they were delivered so wonderfully (that made me remember them! Although I’m not sure I’ve got the direct quote right) that it made my experience of Bran’s story so much more meaningful.
I don’t know! It was very cute. And folk-y. And magical. And I just loved that all of that was wrapped up together and given to me as an innovative story, rather than a traditional play.
Although the festival ends tomorrow, and I am sad to watch it go, as today was my last day to experience it, there is another showing of Stories For The Silver Tree tomorrow, which I wholeheartedly recommend seeing! http://www.cardifffringetheatrefestival.co.uk/events-list/2017/7/22/stories-for-the-silver-tree. Which is why I gave it 5 stars! It was delightful.
Also, more could be found at the Twitter pages of the performers: https://twitter.com/darius_nash , https://twitter.com/tamareluned.