EDINBURGH 2019: Review: BLODEUWEDD UNTOLD, Pleasance Courtyard

Jo Blake, in her one-woman show, asks myth what it would say if it could speak. The audience is encouraged to allow time to go blurry and to sit long enough until they lose their edges "letting wisdom and fury spit".

The 14th-century text talks of a king, a magician, a hero, a hunter, a foot maiden, a mother and - crucially, our key subject - the Welsh tale of Blodeuwedd from the Four Branches of the Mabinogi.

We absorb Blake's tale of her personal destiny for storytelling and her influential childhood love of Jim Henson's The Storyteller, which eventually brought her to explore the Welsh myth. A circle of petals, flour, shoes and three mesmerising metronomes make up the stage and bring the tale to life.

The story of creating Blodeuwedd from flowers for the hero Lleu is enchanting, full of twists and turns involving deadly plots, magicians and a transformation into an owl. Blake explains that such was the maiden's beauty that "all heads looked to her, the way flowers look to the sun'".

Moments of distraction from the tale come in the form of physical movement, with the intention to merge her worlds. Truly Blake's talent is her storytelling, but the abstract movement occasionally creates a disconnect.

An uncommon, thought-provoking tale where the storyteller believes the story sought her out, as opposed to the storyteller seeking the story. We are left questioning the female gaze and essentially how Blodeuwedd would have rather her story be told.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=BLODEUWEDD%20UNTOLD

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