Reviews

Wordplay 2009

10 Sep 2009 in Festival, Shetland, Writing

Islesburgh Communtiy Centre and elsewhere, Shetland, 5-6 September 2009

WORDPLAY is co-ordinated by Shetland Arts but curated by local volunteers (this year’s team were Christine Hughson, Matthew Wright, Genevieve White and Laura Friedlander). They created a range of readings, events and workshops for children and adults alike.

Steven Appleby (© Dave Hammond)

Steven Appleby (© Dave Hammond)

Puppet State Theatre’s The Man Who Planted Trees seemed to have dazzled all who saw it [and rightly so – Ed.], and Louis de Bernieres was very popular and warmly received. The highly acclaimed author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin spoke of his current departure from stories set abroad, and how he is exploring the exotic lunacy of his homeland.

He read us tales of England that were hilarious but also very sad. His acute sense of ‘home’ struck a chord with the assembled audience, and his observations on how places and the peoples who inhabit them change was very poignant and personal.

Crime writer Ann Cleeves’ two-hander with darkly comic Crime Scene Investigator, Helen Pepper, on Saturday was scintillating. The Q&A session soon veered off the subject of literature onto forensics, crime and dead bodies. Disturbing but fascinating stuff! Cleeves also spoke of her thirty-year love affair with Shetland, the setting for her highly successful crime novels, The Shetland Quartet.

Shetland-based writers were represented in several ways. TS Elliot poetry prize winner Jen Hadfield lives on the island of Burra. Her gentle, somehow mischievous, manner made her poetry readings a pleasure to listen to.

Gordon Dargie teamed up with visitor Kevin McNeill (bestselling author of The Stornoway Way, and about to cycle the Danube for charity – check his website below) for some readings, while Tom Morton, Donald McDonald and Donald S Murray spoke of the importance of place in their work.

John Cumming, Laureen Johnson, James Sinclair and Lise Sinclair read from a work in progress developed in collaboration with Shetland fishermen. Young writing in Shetland was also on show with the presentation of the Young Shetland Writer 2009 Awards, this year’s winners were Rona Learmonth, Bethany Byrne-McCombie and Peter Ratter.

Workshops included Mark McCrum on the ‘Nuts and Bolts’ of being a writer, poetry with Gerry Cambridge and Keith Brumpton’s drawing workshops for young people. Mairi Hedderwick delighted children with her tales of Katie Morag, and also spoke about her work for adults,

A Highland Journey. The buzz and banter of children could often be heard as they spilled out of various workshops and readings into the corridors of Islesburgh Community Centre, the heart of Wordplay. The Gruffalo’s 10th Birthday party was by all accounts a particularly lively event!

Steven Appleby is a cartoonist for The Guardian and The Times, and a broadcaster, animator and writer. His books, short films and drawings make for a marvellous journey into his own world, his ideas about identity and the sparkling content of his surreally-stuffed head. His multimedia talk was magic and the audience took a real shine to him.

Artwork by Shetland artist Andrew Morrison hung on the walls of Islesburgh. It was somehow as if they had just quietly slipped in. Luckily they were spotted by many visitors. It was bold, bright new work.

Gerry Cambridge is a photographer as well as a writer. He showed some extraordinary natural history shots. The acidic colours and skewd scale of intricate close-up details of insects and flowers made for other worldly images.

There is always a special feeling when people from other places come here and encounter Shetland hospitality. All the visitors I spoke to were taken with “the friendliness of the people”. And in turn we have our horizons broadened by exposure to new writing, films and the extraordinarily talented people who want to visit us and share their ideas and passions.

As someone who works with screen and word, it is good to see that audiences are up by thirty percent. If people feel welcome the more likely they are to turn up for a look and a dose of informality usually helps. One attempt at this was the addition of a joint Screenplay and Wordplay Festival Club in Islesburgh Community Centre, allowing people to mix with the visitors in a relaxed atmosphere.

Shetland Arts’ Gwylim Gibbons thinks that: “The friendly open feeling of the festival amongst visitors, audiences and participants make Wordplay and Screenplay very special.”

Such personal exchanges are always memorable. I stopped to pick up a strolling, solitary and slightly damp Louis de Bernieres one wet afternoon. We spoke about the weather, of course. I did wonder what the man who is famous for stories set in warm, bright climes made of Shetland on this dark, rainy day. So, it was good to encounter him singing along with local musicians in the Festival Club later that night. I think he was having a warm and jolly time.

Wordplay runs at the same time as Screenplay, Shetland’s film festival. Like the countless musicians who have visited for one of Shetland’s world renowned music festivals, high-profile filmmakers and writers are now discovering that a Shetland festival is a unique thing.

The mix of screen and word is part for what makes this a special event but is also the part that attracts most comment locally. Simply because people often want to attend events in the two festivals that are on at the same time. So, should the two be separated?

Gibbon’s considered this question: “I feel the way in which writers and film makers come together during the festival provides opportunity for creative exchanges that are rare in the Festival circuit. Where else can you find the likes Terence Davies and Louis De Bernieres chatting away, or high level TV producers like Foz Allan and writers such as Ann Cleeves coming together?”

True, and on top of that having a choice of things to do is a treat, a novelty indeed, for local audiences. Maybe just less of a clash between some of the word and screen events for us punters then?

Gwilym again: “There is of course a challenge in how we programme the Festivals together and we will continue to tweak and review how that is done. The opening of Mareel in 2011 will add a whole new dimension to the festivals in that we will be able to host both under one roof and potentially spill over into spaces in adjacent building as the events grows.”

© Karen Emslie, 2009

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