News
May 8-10 2009
Cambridge
Storytellers' second Festival of Story
Festival news-soon to be announced our plans for 2009
May 8-10 2009
Cambridge
Storytellers' second Festival of Story
Festival news-soon to be announced our plans for 2009
Seeing Anew
– the Cambridge Storytellers present Tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round TablePhotos can be seen here
The Leper Chapel, Cambridge, 8th June 2008
Entering the Leper Chapel feels like stepping back in time. Built in about 1125, it is probably the oldest surviving building in Cambridge. The cool stone resonates with connections to times past. And now that the lepers are well and truly gone, it’s a perfect setting for a night of Arthurian legends with the Cambridge Storytellers.
Inside the Chapel, candle-light flickers against the bare walls, and the magical midsummer scents of rosemary, elderflower, and laurel leaves perfume the air. It’s just as I imagine Arthur’s Camelot would have been.
Although I’d like to sound like an Arthurian expert, I’m more of an enthusiast, fascinated by our medieval past. I loved reading medieval literature as a student, and so I was really excited to hear that the Cambridge Storytellers were performing the Tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. As artistic director and storyteller Anne French says, ‘It's important to value and cherish our national heritage. As pure entertainment, the stories provide a good balance of adventure, magic, landscape and human emotions.’ Something for everyone then.
I hoped the performance would revitalise my memories of the legends
– Merlin with his long white beard, the spooky Lady in that misty Lake (even murkier than the Cam) and the Sword in the Stone. Oh, and a few castles, and some knights. Anyway, get to the point, Claire, as Arthur’s sword would say.Every seat was taken and there wasn’t a squeak or a rustle from the audience, suggesting they were, like me, hooked on every word right from the start. Introduced with a furious drum roll, first we heard the dramatic tale of Uther Pendragon. In love with Igraine, wife of his enemy Gorlois, Uther uses a spell from wizard Merlin that makes him look like Gorlois, and as a result of this deception, Arthur is conceived. And I thought Arthur was supposed to be noble! Storyteller Chip Colquhoun focussed on the idea of destiny, reminding me of how Arthur was above mere mortals and destined to be special.
A new perspective was indicated by the plaintive sound of the dulcimer; we were introduced to Guinevere who, as Arthur’s wife, helped him set up the Round Table. And it wasn’t just a case of her putting out the family silver
– her marriage to Arthur meant that he became the leader of the Round Table – a court-load of unruly knights. Rowan transmitted well how Guinevere would have seen Arthur and the other knights coming back from battle, her pride and her love for her husband.As for Guinevere’s famous love affair with Lancelot, in actress Rowan Wylie’s telling, the pair were very close but lived together chastely at Camelot. Court gossip (the Hello! magazine of the day) suggested otherwise, as do many modern tellings of Guinevere’s story, but Rowan tells us that it wasn’t until Lancelot rescued Guinevere from Melgraint’s castle that they became lovers. This seemed to me to be more likely
– after all, even in those tempestuous times, people of noble rank were expected to live according to strict moral standards.But it can’t have been easy for Guinevere, alone and vulnerable while Arthur was frequently on battle duties. Rowan says, ‘I often wonder what a woman's life must have been like in those terrifying days of bloodshed and hunger. I think queens did a lot of sewing.’ As she told Guinevere’s story, I could imagine why even a virtuous courtly lady might be tempted by a knight in shining armour.
From Knights Resplendent to the Beginner Knight, Gareth. Gareth is actually Arthur’s nephew, but has never met his famous uncle. Determined to meet Arthur, Gareth goes to Camelot, and works anonymously in the kitchen. Fortunately, before he becomes the first knight with dishpan hands, a young woman, Linet, comes to Camelot asking for help. The evil Red Knight has imprisoned Lyonesse and taken over her castle and kingdom. Gareth jumps at the chance to help Linet, lady in waiting to Lyonesse, and thereby making himself known to Arthur, and he offers to go and fight the Red Knight. The deal is, if he manages to kill him, he can marry Lyonesse.
Storyteller Anne French injects the story with lively humour and realism as she tells how Linet rudely turns up her nose at Gareth. Who is he? He’s not good enough for her. This isn’t a story I was familiar with and I found myself wondering if, despite Linet’s disgust, she and Gareth would end up together!
Their battle scenes along the road with the Rainbow Knights
– first the Black Knight, then the Blue – are portrayed dramatically through Anne’s use of the drum and voice. Gareth wins each fight but Linet remains unimpressed. Then Gareth wins a battle against the Green Knight and Linet starts to realise there is more to Gareth than meets the eye. He tells her then that even though she has been rude to him, he has treated her with nothing but respect – the mark of a nobleman. Modern audiences can take this as a reminder of how we should treat each other, irrespective of class.When Gareth fights the terrifying Red Knight, he spares his life, allowing him to go to Arthur’s court to serve him there, and it is clear that Gareth is a true Knight. Linet now feels very differently towards him. Call me an old romantic, but I think the mark of a good story is when the characters get under your skin and I feel glad that there is real romance building between these two.
In what feels like a very modern twist to the tale, when Anne’s Lyonesse is released from the Red Knight’s captivity, she sees that Linet and Gareth have fallen in love and she kindly decides to go on a pilgrimage and see the world, allowing Linet to marry Gareth. I feel like cheering.
There’s something ‘Everyman’ about this story. Indeed, Anne feels this story has a message that is still relevant today: ‘It's about somebody finding themselves and growing as a person. It may sound trite, but it's something we all need to do. And in some ways it's not just Gareth who discovers the truth about himself
– that he can achieve things in his own right – but Linet as well; she becomes less judgemental.’No account of Camelot would be complete without a mention of Morgan le Faye. For most people, the name Morgan le Faye conjures up images of a witch, a bad person, but Teresa Benison works storyteller magic to portray Morgan as a lonely woman on the fringe of medieval society. Although she is Arthur’s half-sister, Morgan is effectively disinherited when Uther Pendragon kills her father and marries her mother Igraine. Guinevere banishes Morgan’s first lover.
Hardly surprising then that Morgan vows to get her revenge on Guinevere. There is an interesting conflicting pull in the stories between the secular and the religious. We learn that Guinevere sends Morgan to a convent to get her out of the way and it doesn’t appear to do Morgan much good. Teresa says, ‘I was intrigued by the theory that it was Christianity that brought about the transformation in her character, from benign to malign. In particular it was the Cistercians who, as Morgan says in this telling ‘blackened my name and besmirched my soul’.’
Morgan runs away, learns magic from Merlin, and she has love affairs with knights who stop to rest in the forest where she lives, but none of these last. Later she exposes the love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere and Arthur is broken-hearted.
At the end of the story, we see Morgan regrets how her actions affect Arthur. Teresa says, ‘I hope that with this telling, the audience would shake off some of their preconceptions about Morgan and feel more kindly towards her, perhaps coming to understand how the events of her life might lead her to see the world more darkly.’
Certainly she doesn’t come across as the scary witch I’d imagined before
– but nonetheless Morgan’s not someone to mess with. This interpretation shows her also as a sad figure who was ‘more sinned against than sinning’, to borrow a phrase from Shakespeare. Seems that there’s always a place in our literature for the underdog, but they should come with a health warning, especially if magic’s involved.The last story of the evening was told by Richard Savage, who played the elegant cape-swirling knight, Sir Bevedere. The biblical echoes in the story made me think how popular legend of Arthur was connected to the Christian story of Jesus. Arthur is like a film star of his time
– he lived in luxury at court and fought battles, but he also had to live according to values of noble behaviour, similar to the Christian moral code, or he would be criticised.Our last sighting sees him reunited with Morgan and floating away on the Lake. What happens then is a mystery. Anne French says, ‘I like the optimistic concept of the sleeping king who may return; it is exciting to think of there being a hidden force in nature and in ourselves. Who knows what that might lead to?’
Storyteller Teresa Benison says that for her, working on this project was about seeing the familiar anew. Echoing this, a member of the audience, Merryn Grimley, said afterwards, ‘Everyone knows something about the legends of Arthur. This performance refreshed my understanding of the stories and was very enjoyable too. It’s really important to have these stories told, as they are part of our culture.’
Also in the audience was Antony Appleyard, who said, ‘It was extremely atmospheric
– I felt like I went back in time.’ Anne French says that storytelling is a voyage of discovery. I can’t wait for when the Storytellers perform at the Manor in Hemingford Grey in July, to see where the next performance of further Tales from King Arthur will take us.
Claire Powell, author and playwright