On 21st September, Terrington Village Hall played host to the mesmerising “100 Different Words For Love” by James Rowland & Tangram Theatre. The show told familiar tales of love and heartbreak, incorporating music, comedy and storytelling all into one incredible solo performance.
The ON Tour team got the chance to go along to the show to experience it for ourselves and support our new ON Tour promoter, Dave Gaskell, in promoting his first show at Terrington Village Hall. The venue had previously worked with ON Tour several years ago, under the Terrington Arts. But as the reigns were handed over to the village committee, we were able to welcome Dave as our new ON Tour promoter for the village, a few months ago.
As we arrived at the village hall, we spotted James and his director, Daniel Goldman, sitting down having a nice warming homemade soup; food traditionally being made by our lovely promoters when a company comes to visit their venue!
Terrington Village Hall had been set out in a cabaret style, with gorgeous lanterns on the tables, creating a lovely mood-lit room, ready for the show. A separate room, leading into the hall, contained a bar all set up for the audience, allowing them to relax and have a drink before the performance began.
The beautiful hall set up ready for the #100differentwordsforlove show tonight at @terringtoninfo We can’t wait to see @Jdsrowland perform! pic.twitter.com/PPZUEHZF3j— Rural Arts (@RuralArts) September 22, 2018
As the play began, whilst we sipped at our drink of choice, the audience were welcomed by one ambiguous quote. “I’m going to tell you a story now, and none of it is true”. And so we entered into James’ world, unsure as to whether he was telling the story of his own life or a made up tale, but either way the play engrossed it’s audience in the tales of all the different types of love one can experience, from love for a friend, romantic love, one-sided love and love for a relative. It was a play that spoke to everyone in one way or another, and is definitely worth a watch.
J = James Rowland, D = Daniel Goldman, A = Audience
A: Right at the start, you said this is completely made up, but it felt like it was quite real. So my questions is, do you take notes?
J: There are 15 people in the audience, you’ve given me 15 hours of your time. I give one. It’s a real exchange, I respect that hugely. Part of that contract is that I make good on that, for every hour an audience member gives me, I give that time back; through putting that amount of work in, through thinking about things in the back of my mind…So when things happen I can’t help but take note. It’s something that is ongoing…It’s generally taking notes all the time, even if not physically.
A: I’m a creative person and people ask me where I get my ideas from. These pieces that you do, they don’t come out of fresh air, does something start it off and then you embroider around it?
D: There’s this lovely quote “Politicians use truths to tell lies, and artists use lies to tell truths”, and I think we’re lying all the time but to tell truths.
D: And there’s a line before that says None of this true, even that line is doubtful, “I’ll come back and all of this will be artifice” and then he tells you that none of this is going to be true.
