BWW Reviews: THE STORYTELLING SEASON, GODS OF BRONZE AND IRON, The Unicorn Theatre, February 2-21 2010

Readers may recall fond memories of Jackanory, the BBC's long-running storytelling show for children. At a tender age, kids like me would be introduced to the school-mistressy Judi Dench, the incomparable Kenneth Williams and the hyper Rik Mayall and many other big name actors, as they read - well, performed - the texts of children's novels and poems. Orthodox thinking would say that today's kids would need MTV-style visual pyrotechnics to keep them from the remote control, and I presume thinking like that killed off dear old Jackanory in 1996.

February's Storytelling Season at The Unicorn Theatre debunks that lazy stereotyping by keeping its audience of pre-teens transfixed, as ancient stories are told by gifted tellers. Ben Haggarty, ably supported by real life Viking Woman, Heidi Dahlsveen, opened the season with Scandanavian creation myths, full of fantastic creatures, vengeful Gods, death and creation, with much of the imagery familiar to anyone who has seen the work of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Though told with great commitment and energy, the cast of characters was too numerous and too weird for the younger and (I confess) older members of the audience to retain in their mind's eye as the adventures unfolded. It was a clever touch to introduce the derivation of the days of the week in the final segment, as the kids left with something to hold on to as a memory of the myths recounted.

The season closed with Clare MulreAnn Murphy's winning accounts of some of Ireland's most ancient tales. More directly involving the kids, and with much mime to support fewer stories told in greater detail, she held her audience spellbound as wars were fought, marriages made and promises kept and broken. She was, of course, mining a rich Irish storytelling tradition, one that Joyce himself acknowledged when he moved to Paris to write, since, at the end of an afternoon in a Dublin pub, he had "no words left".

There will be more Storytelling seasons at The Unicorn - I can recommend them as a means of re-connecting with one of man's most ancient art forms. And you can always try it out yourself with a book and a child - and no remote control!