STORY & LAUGHTER
The Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre, 100 Courtenay Place, Wellington
25/11/2018 - 25/11/2018
Production Details
created and performed by Gaye Sutton
For story tellers and listeners
Gaye joins us from over the Remutaka hill to share tales from her plentiful store. Gaye says, “I’m in love with all the genres, but particularly with weaving the ancient tales and current happenings.” Gaye has a quirky sense of humour and an understanding of the human condition will entertain you and make you ponder. She’s looking forward to being with you on Sunday, the 25th November at 4pm. Gaye Sutton has been telling tales ever since she could string sentences together. There will be an opportunity for (voluntary) stories from the floor in this show.
Gaye was part of the founding of storytelling in New Zealand with Glistening Waters festivals, and is currently offering courses in journalling. She has also been a contributor to international storytelling festivals.
She will be available for signing of her book But For The Grace at the show. This is her one and only Wellington show this year, so come and meet her and share her love of stories.
This month’s feature teller is one of the key movers and shakers of story in all its forms in Wairarapa. Fresh from TUNA!, Waiarapa’s community storytelling festival celebrating the return of the Longfin elver.
You can find out more about Gaye at http://gayesutton.co.nz/.
The Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre
Sunday 25th November 2018
4 pm
Tickets $10 on Eventfinder Door Sales $15
https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2018/story-laughter3/wellington
What we’re about
If you love stories, want to tell stories, want to listen to others stories or maybe you’re just story curious come on down to the The Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre at The Courtyard on Courtenay Place for an hour of tales with Story & Laughter. Downstairs on the right as you head to the back entrance, look for the huge bunny in the corner window! All tales, tellers and listeners welcomed.
P.S. Please note December’s Story & Laughter will be on Saturday 22nd December 4 pm – apparently you all get busy heading off for the Summer break.
Spoken word , Theatre , Solo ,
Could be tighter and more dynamic
Review by Margaret Austin 26th Nov 2018
“Can I be funny for an hour?” asks story teller Gaye Sutton, after her introduction by Caroline Welkin, stand-up comic, fellow story teller and this evening’s MC at the Scruffy Bunny.
Veteran of Wairarapa’s Glistening Waters group, Sutton prefaces her performance with a couple of anecdotes which originate with her name: Gaye was a tricky one to own to in the seventies!
Sutton is a confident, practised teller. She draws on a collection of tales – mythical, contemporary, and philosophical – and delivers them in a generous manner. Audience members are invited to contribute their own, though no one in this evening’s listeners is prepared to take the stage.
As Sutton proceeds to tell us stories – mostly amusing – I find myself asking, “What is a story teller?” She/he isn’t a stand-up comic, actor or speech maker. The art of the story telling could surely benefit from all three though: a readiness to respond to audience mood from the comic; gesture, stance and vocal variety from the actor; and structure and wording from the speech maker.
To hold the stage solo for an hour – let alone be funny – is a challenge to any performer. This evening Sutton struggles a little towards the end of her sixty minutes, though her narrative concerning the recent cave entrapment of Thai schoolboys and their spectacular rescue – a story in the making she tells us – is, though not evoking the laughter of her show’s title, captivating.
Two elements could perhaps contribute to a tighter, more dynamic presentation here. Rather than a disparate series of stories, having a stated theme or message with stories that mount in intensity would provide greater momentum.
And second, what about some simple costume changes and perhaps props? The effectiveness of the visual can greatly enhance performance.
(Sutton is offering workshops in journaling this week alongside her story telling.)
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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