There is always an anticipatory hush as we settle into a session of A Bit Crack Storytelling, and none more so than at the August 2021 meeting, when we were honoured to experience the supreme powers of Michael and Wendy Dacre. This beautiful couple have been telling and singing stories for many years and are fascinated by other worlds and different dimensions. On this memorable night we were treated to three ‘ramblings in the mist’ about the fair folk and their interaction with us ordinary mortals, Irish stories from long ago which they projected round the world on Zoom from their home in Devon.
Michael led us along mystical paths peppered with the most beautiful women in the world, wild dreams and ever-changing circles of life. Meanwhile, Wendy sang to us, a solitary Greek chorus highlighting the action in a voice of sweet gentleness, yearning and calming in equal measure.
The result was a world of transformations and re-transformations, timelessness and restlessness, love flying heavenwards in the form of snow-white swans, rage and jealousy, dark Druids, unbearable loss, indeed the full gamut of human emotions. Our deep immersion mirrored Michael and Wendy’s own; he admitted finding it difficult not to cry when telling one of his particularly moving stories.
Their style was engaging, as behind the seriousness a chuckle was never far away, demonstrated in Michael’s delivery of some of the dialogue interspersing the narrative. Their timing was superb, and there was such a warm symbiosis between them, which was heartening to experience.
But I must end with a warning. Ensure you emerge from the fairy world when the stories are over, don’t keep them trapped in your head, as did Michael and Wendy’s inspirational friend, at his peril.
“They’re just stories, don’t believe.”
Pam Duesbury