Monday 20 June 2011

SUSURRUS

  I don't know if susurrus (pronounced sus-yoo-rus) is a made-up word but according to the playwright, David Leddy it means,'the wind rustling in the trees.' It is also the title of his latest production to be premiered at Margam Country Park from the 25th June to the 3rd of July.
     He is our invited guest at Script cafe in Pontardawe Arts centre tomorrow, so I was keen to attend a preview yesterday in the Park.  According to the information given out,
   'It is part radio play, part recital, part lesson in bird dissection and part stroll in the park. . . the different elements creating a perfect melding of location and text to create a theatre experience in which there are no actors and only one member in the audience:you'
     We were given headphones, a MP3 player and a map each, and set loose to follow the trail while listening to the 'play'.   Margam Country Park was once a twelfth century Cistercian Abbey, the wealthiest and largest in Wales. It has been extended and added to and has the longest Orangery in Britain.  It was a brilliantly sunny day, families were strolling around the lake and playing frisbee on the grass. A large party of Asian families were having a barbecue on one of the smaller open spaces, children swinging and climbing over ancient yew trees, and a couple of butch-looking women with huge lenses swung around their necks were taking photos of the ducks and close-ups of foliage patterns. A perfect  back drop for a play about 'love and loss. . . a sensual interpretation of a Midsummer Night's Dream with a contemporary edge.'
      I should have known when we were told by the guide that it had adult content that it wasn't going to be what I thought it might be.  I wandered around the park imbibing the perfume and colour of the roses,  pastoral scenes spread out in front of me like a delicious picnic, the steel works of Port Talbot in the far distance, and the sea sparkling on the horizon. I was enjoying the wonderful music and operatic recital pieces that accompanied me from bench to bench, when I suddenly realised that 'love and loss' in the audio drama included sexual abuse, a bereaved daughter, a suicidal father, a homosexual lover, and a post mortem on a dead sparrow. Not the love and loss I was expecting, but a very moving and sad story juxtaposed against a sunny Sunday afternoon.
      I would certainly recommend the audio drama- it is a new intimate experience in theatre going, cleverly interweaving four viewpoints, layered with meaning. But if you can't stomach the story, you could just listen to the momentous musical bits in between the action as you stroll around the magical Margam Country Park.
    
    

Sunday 12 June 2011

LET ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTELLATIONS CHANGE YOUR WORLD

Earlier this month I attended another workshop at Llwynbwch, entitled,'Environmental Constellations' run by Zita Cox.  It is an idea based on the work of Bert Hellinger.

   

 'We are all interconnected parts of family, organisation, community and eco-system. The difficulties we struggle with are often best resolved when we work systemically.They allow us to observe our place in nature and our systemic relationship to other living beings. They assist us with new ways of thinking and finding resolutions to the problems we have created, such as climate change, pollution, alienation and accelerating species extinction etc; They can be an aid to empathy and shared understanding in all situations. A constellation draws on emotional intelligence and intuition as well as logical thought. It can provide a way of seeing below the surface to understand what the real issues are and what can be done to improve things.'*
  
 This workshop was aimed at therapists who want to find a different way to explore some of the issues raised in their work with clients and to develop their own self awareness. We were asked to identify a deeply felt, ‘burning’ issue. 
    In my case, I decided to constellate my next life step. Zita asked me to invite people from the group to stand in a special configuration – called a constellation. This provides a ‘living map’ of the issues you are dealing with. With guidance from Zita, the representatives in my constellation were asked to feed back their experience – focusing on their physical and emotional responses. Zita tested possibilities by inviting representatives to move positions and make simple statements. Pathways to action were revealed and explored. When an optimum configuration was arrived at, I was invited to step back into the constellation to experience the resolution.
    The experience was very interesting. As only one person knew me I think it would have been difficult for all representatives to have been in collusion with one another projecting their ideas of me onto the constellation. However, I can see that a cynic could think this.  What seemed to come out of this exercise for me was a shift in what could be my next life step. Whatever it is, it seems it should involve crossing water and preferably the sea. The last time I had really itchy feet was around seven years ago. I ended up living and working in the Shetland isles for a year and wrote a book, 'Soothmoother's Saga,' about the experience.   Where and what it might be this time has yet to be revealed to me, but you'll be one of the first to know when it is. 


*For further info see: www.environmentalcontellations.com