Drumbeat July 2009
ALL FOR YOUR DELIGHT
Although there was no Drumbeat in June, while its editor swanned around western France dressed in unflattering shorts and an increasingly battered straw hat, decisions were being made here to ensure that our programme of events for the autumn and beyond would be every bit as varied and exciting as in previous seasons. And now it can be told. So, with diaries at the ready, please read on:
SEPTEMBER
Lympstone Entertainments are honoured to be responsible for the first presentation in the month-long celebrations of the 600th Anniversary of our Parish Church. To get the ball well and truly rolling, at 7.30pm on Friday 4th September we shall be staging a concert in the church by the immensely exciting.
This Dartmoor-based group have been widely applauded for their authentic evocation of the spirit of Mediaeval Europe with music, masks and dance, bringing to life images based on paintings of the period, carvings and literature. An array of exotic period instruments includes hurdy-gurdy, gothic harp, citole, dulcimer, small bagpipes, recorders, bass viol, middle eastern percussion and the beautiful voice of soprano Siona Stockel. Their programme will include up-tempo ballatas and foot stomping dances from the courts of 14th century Italy, pilgrim songs from 13th century Spain and beguiling love songs from France. Do make every effort to be there, and tell your chums too. There will be a licensed bar and tickets at £8 and £10 will be available from the Post Office, or you can ring 01395 263928
CALLING ALL FLEAS
On Saturday 26th September, as the celebrations come towards their close, a Medieval Fayre will be held on Candy’s Field. We thought it would be fun, as well as fitting, if Friends of Lympstone Entertainments were to have a presence there, and we issue this invitation: if you have an urge to minstrelsy, or a yen for jonglery; a long-suppressed desire to tilt or to caper, an email to me will is all it takes. Or, if you have a better idea of what a Flea Market Stall at the Fayre might involve, tell me. The next Drumbeat will reveal our plans and how you can join in the fun.
OCTOBER
We are genuinely delighted to announce that we have booked THE BRIDGE STRING QUARTET OF LONDON to pay a return visit to Lympstone. Their recital here last September was so well received that we promised many in that audience that we would bring these talented and very personable players back; they will be performing a programme of Schubert, Britten and Dvorak in the Parish Church, at 7.30pm on Saturday 17th October. There will be a licensed bar and tickets at £8 and £10 will be available from Lympstone Post Office four weeks ahead of the event, or you can ring 01395 263928 now.
NOVEMBER
Did you see Pip Utton’s spellbinding portrayal of the aging Charlie Chaplin at the start of the year? If you did, you won’t want to miss his return visit as Charles Dickens. And if you did miss him last time, you simply mustn’t make the same mistake again! His new one-man show will bring a host of well-known characters to the Village Hall: Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit and many more in Pip’s version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL in a timely pre-Christmas performance on Friday 27th November at 7.30pm. A Villages in Action co-presentation.
Two days later, on Sunday 29th November, at 2.30pm in the Village Hall we shall be presenting THE NAVVY’S WIFE, a musical drama by Mick Ryan. Lympstone’s Paul Downes collaborated on this show, which in a brilliant series of songs gives voice to the lives & loves of the men & women who worked to create Britain’s canals, railways & roads. Performed by a company of singers & musicians, including Paul himself, The Navvy’s Wife is touring the country, and we have persuaded them to perform in Lympstone. In the words of one of the songs, “Aren’t we the lucky ones!”
IN THE NEW YEAR – 2010 can you believe it?
So far we haven’t finalised the booking for a puppet theatre to entertain the children of Lympstone, but they won’t be left out, we promise. We have, however, got a firm date for our next VILLAGE CONCERT: it will fill the Village Hall with music and laughter on Saturday 27th February. John Welton will as usual be canvassing support and contributions from far and wide – don’t be surprised if you get a call!
On Wednesday 3rd March another Villages in Action co-presentation comes to the Parish Church: Emma Wilkins and Helen McLeod have been playing together as HOOT since 2005. This vibrant young flute and harp duo have a wide classical and popular repertoire which they have performed from the Edinburgh Festival to the Royal Albert Hall.
On Thursday 29th April in the Village Hall, the critically-acclaimed writing and performing partnership known as New Perspectives will be staging their thrilling account of the exploits of the pioneers of transtlantic flight, Alcock and Brown in THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN. Like you, we just can’t wait to see how the daredevil aerial antics in the cockpit of a converted Vickers Vimy WWI biplane will be brought to life by a pair of actors and a crate-full of props (no pun intended), but we are assured that they can pull it off! A Villages in Action co-presentation.
So that’s the programme, so far. There should be something in it to please even the most demanding. It may not be the West End, nor yet the Edinburgh Festival, but at least it’s right here ‘on the street where you live’, almost!
THE LAST WORD ON STREET POETRY – for 2009
Somebody put a card through my door this afternoon, a one-time resident of Lympstone, now living in Cairo, but “back visiting my favourite place in all the world.” She continued, “On my first nostalgic walk through the village I spotted the deliciously random poems which confirmed the fact that I was here. There’s no other place like Lympstone… Even though my status is self-relegated to that of visitor, when I read the poetry I know that I’m home.”
And many of you have taken the trouble to tell me how much the residents appreciate the weekly diet of verse that we have been serving up. I would like to thank those of you who have suggested poems to display: Rodney Dingle, Angela Cole, Sheila Stone, Jill Wilson, Jenny Moon, Brian Ridge. Rodney has also displayed his own selection in his window, and that has made a wonderful contribution. Richard Giles suggested and translated a Greek poem from 600 BC. And of course we are grateful to Ralph Rochester for allowing us to use his poem ‘Comorant’.
You may have noticed some themes creeping in. While Wimbledon was on, we displayed some tennis poems; to mark the Garden Openings there were four poems about gardens; and when we had a children’s poet staying in the village, Mike Jubb, we used one of his poems and three others written for children. We even had four poems about breakfast and afternoon tea.
The Anglo Saxon riddle, taken from the Exeter Book of Riddles, had many people scratching their heads, including me. I can now reveal that the answer was – a one-eyed garlic seller! Give yourself a bottle of champagne if you worked it out.
We have been asked if we would publish the poems as an anthology, and we are giving that serious consideration. Our other hope is to have a board in the village dedicated to poetry the whole year round. The end of the summer must not be the end of poetry in Lympstone.
Harland Walshaw
