Dark Tales From the Guildhall NNF 2024
A fascinating insight into strange goings-on that left an abiding impression of unease at what human beings are capable of doing to each other,
festival
Having arrived early at the Guildhall, and having therefore bagged the comfiest couch in the room, I sat with my companion while he regaled me with tales gone by of the likes of Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson at the Theatre Royal. In these straightened times, star-studded appearances at the festival seem like the stuff of myth and legend, and last year I struggled to find much of interest, such was the stranglehold of budgetary constraints. This year, however, even this early on, the festival feels reinvigorated, having reinvented itself with a newly minted focus on local talent. Looking forward, there are all sorts of treats coming up that may not have the grandstanding appeal of the Lindsay Quartet or Souvenir or Steven Isseris, but are nonetheless grounded in the place we live, giving the festive a unique East Anglian flavour it has arguably lacked.
A case in point was an evening in the company of the Norfolk Folklore Society. Billed as a magical night filled with music, ghosts, witchcraft, tunnels and murder it may have been a tad oversold, but Siofra Connor and Stacia Briggs were such delightfully personable company, it was hard not to warm to them. Essentially this was a live recording of their podcast, in which they share local tales of murder and mayhem, occasionally going off topic and frequently making each other giggle with ghoulish frisson at the horrors revealed. The music was provided by Laura Cannell, who is popping up all over the place as artist in residence (and well worth catching before her final performance next Sunday). Showcasing her signature over bowing violin technique and the recorder last seen in the Cathedral, she added much appreciated atmosphere to proceedings. I would have liked to have heard more from her, but there were stories to be told.
Siofra and Stacia did their best to spook us out, but their efforts were somewhat compromised by the early evening sunlight streaming through the Guildhall windows. It was surely a missed trick having the event on so early. The same setting, as darkness fell and lit by candlelight could have been really something. What we got instead was more akin to an episode of Loose Women discussing dismemberment. That said, who wouldn't tune in to see Janet Street Porter and Coleen Nolan nattering about slit throats, distributed body parts and folk being burnt alive? I know I would.
Apart from a potted history of the Guildhall, the evening focused on two grisly tales, of Mary and Martha. One burnt as a witch, the other cut into pieces. A delicate balance was attempted, but not always achieved, between relishing the details and sympathy for the victims. Bon mots aplenty, particularly from Stacia, lightened a mood that could otherwise have cast a long shadow over unremittingly grim accounts, while Siofra specialised in shivers of distaste at these accounts, while obviously lapping up every last detail. Granted, the advertised tunnels were swiftly debunked, and try as they might, the Guildhall remained obstinately unghostly, but a jolly time was had by all.
To say much more would be to compromise the upcoming podcast, so suffice to say it was a fascinating insight into strange goings-on that left an abiding impression of unease at what human beings are capable of doing to each other, together with a thankfulness that the ring bolt on the corner of the Guildhall, where malefactors were tied up and flogged, has now fallen into disuse. On the way out I was given a lovingly presented explanatory leaflet and no less than three of Siofra’s homemade badges, gifts that somehow summarised the good-natured eccentricity of the event.
