If you've been wandering the streets and lanes of the St Austell Bay area over the past month, you may have stumbled across some rather unusual sights. Ballroom dancers blooming like flowers in a skate park, or a film projected onto the wall of a petrol station, or a fleet of white horses riding the waves on the south coast of the county. Perhaps you heard the lament of a woman in white, standing at the prow of her ghostly ship, or you sang along at a gig on the back of a van. Kneehigh's collective of local artists- all contributing to their season of Random Act of Art- have certainly been busy! I've been working with Cornish artist and performer, Harry Brewer, on a storytelling box. We've titled our storytelling experience, Last Night A God Crashed Through My Roof, because I love long and slightly obnoxious titles like that. The experience follows the Ancient Greek myth of Hephaestus, the Olympian god of the smithy, who was said to have one leg and was thrown out of Olympus. He created the first woman from mud: Pandora. He caused volcanoes and lived on the clay mining island of Lemnos, amongst the humans there. This connection to clay and craftsmanship was what drew us to this myth. Hephaestus is an unusual and compelling character in Greek mythology; he is the only god who is described as being disabled. He seems to genuinely care for and be interested in humans. He is creative and learns skills of metal work and mining. He is angry and vengeful and jealous, but he's also vulnerable and soft-hearted. Of all the Olympians, his success is reliant on the humans (who teach him how to be a blacksmith). You can read more about the Hephaestus mythology in the Iliad, which is free online (Google it). There was so much in this story that was TASTY!!! I think we knew whatever we would make from the myth would have to be tactile and textured. The natural elements in the story were all very visceral: the fire of Hephaestus's smithy, the small island of Lemnos surrounded by sea, the mud that makes Pandora, the metalwork, the white crags of Mount Olympus... there was a lot to remind us of some of the landscapes around St Austell. Right here, in Cornwall, we have our very own Ancient Greece! We toyed with the idea of having this story be told on a walk, maybe through headphones (both myself and Harry are musicians and wanted music to be a part of the storytelling). However, England was in lockdown whilst we were playing with these first ideas, and with many people shielding, it didn't seem right to encourage an audience out of their homes without a very good reason. We wanted to send a story to our audience, a gift that they wouldn't need to leave their homes to experience. So a box with elements from the story contained inside it seemed like a fun idea! Our storytelling box itself is wooden, with the night sky painted on the lid and the sides. It looks heavy. It is heavy. Solid. Stamped on the box are the words, 'Pandora' and 'DO NOT OPEN'. When the lid is opened, the sides fold down to reveal the white Mountain of Olympus, sitting atop maps of the St Austell area. Four little houses, also painted white, light up inside, and a string of fairy lights also casts interesting shadows and patterns on the white interior. A set of instructions is in an envelope, and explains to the audience how they can interact with the box. An MP3 player and speaker plays the story and music accompanies the spoken text. The text is also included in the box, so the audience can read along. There are also various exercises and activities that can be 'played', and the audience is invited to use the clay also provided with the box to create their own Pandoras, or their own Greek god, goddess or hero. We have sent our storytelling box to a youth group in St Austell, and we hope they enjoy interacting with the story of Hephaestus and Pandora. We're excited to see photos and videos of what they get up to and we'll update this blog post when the group have participated. Many thanks to Kneehigh and the Hall for Cornwall New Artist Network for putting on this season of work, and bringing so much joy to the St Austell Bay area. See the trailer for Last Night a God Crashed Through My Roof here.
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