7th U.K. Winter Tour 5th - 11th December 2012
Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’
Wednesday 5th December
Steeple Ashton Village Hall, Steeple Ashton Wilts
7pm £8/£5, Tickets: The Village Shop 01380-871211
Friday 7th December
Shaftesbury Arts Centre, 13 Bell St. Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8AR
7.30pm £12/£10 members/£6 under 18’s Tickets: 01747-854321
Saturday 8th December
Morgans Vale & Woodfalls Village Hall, The Ridge, Woodfalls, Wiltshire
7.30pm £8/£5 cabaret style (bring drinks & glasses) Tickets: 01725-511164
Monday 10th December
Headgate Theatre, 14 Chapel St North, Colchester, CO2 7AT
7.30pm £12/£10/£6 under 18’s Tickets: 01206-366000
Tuesday 11th December
St Mary’s Church, Wivenhoe, Essex CO2 9AB
7.30pm £8/£7/£5 Tickets: Bookshop 01206-824050
Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’
2012 is the 9th season in Hamburg - this year celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens 1812-1870
Saturday December 15th 2012 8pm
Kulturhaus Eppendorf.
Julius-Reincke-Stieg 13a (ehemals Martinistr.40), 20251 Hamburg
€14,- (€10,- concessions)
Tickets on sale at Kulturhaus: Tel: 040 - 48 15 48
(Öffentliche Bürozeiten: Mo, Di, Do, Fr 11-13 und 14-16)
Sunday December 16th 2012 3pm
The Irish Rover
Großneumarkt 8, 20459 Hamburg
€14,- (€10,- concessions)
Tickets on sale at The Irish Rover: Tel: 040 - 3571 4663
In 1843 Charles Dickens was writing a new Christmas story to highlight the plight of the overworked poor. Unable to sleep, he walked the streets of London at night composing the story in his head and felt his characters, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, urging him to tell their story. The result was 'A Christmas Carol' in which he created the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and gave us a message of hope, that even the hardest heart can soften and do good.
On
Christmas Eve Scrooge is in his counting house being his mean, nasty
self. But things are about to change. At night he is terrified by a
visit from the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who
warns him to change his ways or suffer for eternity. He is visited, in
succession, by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future who show
him as he was, as he is now and as he will be ...
Prepare
to be transported back into the world of Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit
and Tiny Tim, as they come vividly to life in this powerful performance
of Dickens’s classic tale.
“Told with great skill. An excellent evening of entertainment.”
Oxhill News.
“A complete transformation into the world of Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit.”
Wivenhoe News.
COMING IN 2013
Charles Dickens’s ‘The Chimes’ (A story of renewal for the new year)
Friday January 25th 2013 8pm
Kulturhaus Eppendorf
Julius-Reincke-Stieg 13a (ehemals Martinistr.40), 20251 Hamburg
€14,- (€10,- concessions)
Gawain and the Green Knight (Britain's parallel to Parsifal)
Friday February 22nd 2013 8pm
Kulturhaus Eppendorf
Julius-Reincke-Stieg 13a (ehemals Martinistr.40), 20251 Hamburg
€14,- (€10,- concessions)
Jack Stories (Jack is a trickster who outwits all his enemies)
Friday March 22nd 2013 8pm
Kulturhaus Eppendorf
Julius-Reincke-Stieg 13a (ehemals Martinistr.40), 20251 Hamburg
€14,- (€10,- concessions)
Stories of (April) Fools
Friday April 19th 2013 8pm
Kulturhaus Eppendorf
Julius-Reincke-Stieg 13a (ehemals Martinistr.40), 20251 Hamburg
€14,- (€10,- concessions)
Recently performed in Hamburg
English Ghost Stories - 'A Warning to the Curious'
Chilling stories of Ghostly Guardians
England is rich in stories of ghosts and many of these are connected with treasure. Sometimes treasure is found through the appearance of a ghost but more often than not, the finder of treasure meets a terrifying shock, or at worst a sudden end through the power of a ghostly guardian. Here are some of the best stories.
8pm Friday 9th November 2012
Kulturhaus Eppendorf
Julius-Reincke-Stieg 13a (ehemals Martinistr.40), 20251 Hamburg
RECENTLY- Ghost Stories
It's after Halloween and time for ghost stories. A performance based on the chilling English stories of M. R. James. Spooky stories for the darker time of year, to give you something to shiver about other than the weather! You can find out more about M. R. James on previous postings on this blog.
The stories begin prosaically enough with a slow build up of details which gradually become sinister and warn the listener that something nasty is about to happen. Then suddenly, it happens. There is a frisson of fear for an instant and then the loose ends are neatly tied up.
The beauty of most ghost stories is that they are not frightening in the way our real world can be, but in a more primitive way that reminds us of the game of saying 'Boo!' when we were very young. The unease is pleasurable rather than frightening.
For adults (and 15 +).
Previous event
‘On the Edge’
Stories from the Celtic fringe of the British Isles.
At, ‘The Story Boat’,
Centrosociale, Sternstr. 2, 20357 Hamburg-Sternschanze (nearest U-Bahn: Feldstraße)
Friday, 30th September at 8 pm.
Recently performed in Hamburg
Irish Stories
Three of the finest Irish folktales.
The Children of Lir, The Twelve Wild Geese & Oisin in Tir na nOg.
These tales show the fluidity of Celtic imagination and cover the period from the old religion to Christianity. They are stories of transformation; from human to bird, and from human to immortal.
Recently performed in England
The Odstock Curse
A true story from the village of Odstock near Salisbury. A stolen horse and a curse put on whoever locks a church are the two events behind this dramatic story.
7.30pm Saturday 26th March 2011
at The Memorial Hall, Downton, Nr Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Background information on the performance. For pictures see earlier posts on this blog for 2009 - October.
The Odstock Curse
“[Of the curse] There is no doubt as to the fulfilment.”
Rev Philip Miles, Rector of Odstock 1868 - 1907.
Two events created this story. In 1800 a horse belonging to John Marsh, a carpenter, was stolen from a stable in Steeple Ashton. Joshua Scamp, a respected Gypsy, was arrested on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to be hanged, although he was innocent. In 1859 Mother Lee laid curses on 5 men; Rev Charles Grove, Farmer Hodding, John Hackett and the two Bachelor brothers, and a death curse on anyone locking Odstock church door, a curse which lingered on into the last decade of the 20th century when it was laid to rest.
My performance reveals the links between these two events and tells the human story behind them. It is divided into two parts. The first; 1800 - 1870, is told from the perspective of a 19th century witness to the events. The second: 1870 - 2011 is told looking back from today.
The story is a dramatic and moving one and rightly has a high profile in the folklore of the Salisbury Area. It exists in several versions with slight variations in the facts. The main source for these, and my performance, is the Odstock Blacksmith, Hiram Witt’s, account written down in 1870 when he was 58. He was an eyewitness to some of the events he describes and tells others as if he was. This is well within the ‘rules’ of folk tradition and grounds the teller in the story.
What I have added to the story is my own research into original documents especially those from the Salisbury Lent Assizes of 1801 (which even after 200 years make chilling reading). I have also included information from the Salisbury Journal of that year including an eyewitness account of the hanging. Wherever I could I have also consulted documents which verify places, dates and the names of the protagonists in order to clarify the story.
My aim is to keep the drama and give it as much truth as possible to honour the bravery of Joshua Scamp who wanted above all to save his daughter’s happiness. He was caught in the implacable justice system of his time. It is the human story behind the events which I want to tell. It is hard to de-sensationalise the curse but I should add that in Romany lore, the laying of a curse of this magnitude is a weapon of last resort, and used only when all hope of redress is lost.
It is difficult to authenticate the later parts of the story (after 1870) but there is no doubt as to the unease the curse has inspired locally. This is hardly surprising. Just imagine yourself in the time before the curse was lifted and ask yourself the question “Would you lock the door?”
I heard the story repeated frequently when I was a child. It was ‘the church that must not be locked’. I remember my Great Aunt driving me past the church and telling me the story which she recalled from the 1930’s of the vicar who had locked the door and died and the key being thrown into the river. The road passes the north side of the church and the shadow adds gloom to what is indeed a frightening story. The story of motorcyclist’s accident was told to me in 1986 and in 2006, I first learned about the lifting of the curse in 1992.
The settled population of Odstock in 1851 was only 60 people and some of their descendants still live there which is perhaps why the events herein are so deeply etched in the folk memory. It is also clear that Joshua Scamp is a hero to local people and some believe (curse or no curse) that the door should have remained unlocked out of respect to him. There is, after all, a great deal of symbolism in the locking of something.
© Robert MacCall 2011
Last event;
Sunday 13th February 2011
Love Stories on St Valentine’s Eve
A medley of love stories, songs, music and poems for the pleasure of the heart.
14.30 The Irish Rover - Großneumarkt 8 - 20459 HH
19.30 Kulturhaus Eppendorf - Martinistraße 40 - 20251 HH
www.kulturhaus-eppendorf.de
