A Little & A Little Adds Up To A Lot

This weekend I was privileged enough to perform at The Little Festival of Everything, the brainchild of Alex Wright (Belt-Up and Flanagan Collective) and Tom Bellerby (Pilot Theatre).  The setting:  The Fauconberg Arms in the small North Yorkshire village of Coxwold.  The plot:  To provide arts to a small community and allow companies to network and test material.  The cast:  Theatre companies, performers, musicians and poets from across the country perform in the tiny pub to local and travelling audiences. 

I wrote a poem about it, which I think sums it all up:

There was a little bit of sketch comedy when a man fell into a chasm

Two writers in a restaurant trying to out-do the other one

There was a little bit of music, the ugly sister’s side of the story

And foot-stomping, fist-swinging, hot dancing folk music glory

There was a little bit of poetry, lines written and read

Conversations with a copper who was also her Dad

There was a little bit of story-telling, William and Polly in the stars

Smiles on faces when we found out drinks were free at the bar

There was a little bit of heroism from tinfoil armoured knights

I had dinner with Dr. Higgs and I don’t think he’s quite right

There was a little market stall, a little chiselling of stone

A little filming too to tell the whole world what we know

That a little and a little and a little adds up to a lot

Going on in this friendly, old North Yorkshire pub.

So please check out 6 Lips Theatre, Snickelways Theatre, Hannah Nicklin, Tucked In, Whitebone, Forward Theatre Project to name but a few.

I think that the event really tapped into the ‘folk’ element of theatre and poetry that we forget amongst the busy hustle of London and the rainy leaflet-driven world of Edinburgh.  To perform to a small handful of people in a small room in a small pub can achieve so much, when said show/pub/village/room is full of appreciation, friendliness and love.  Poetry and acoustic music and theatre can pretty much be performed anywhere, all you need is an audience, it’s a very rootsy ideology.

Also, remember I’m doing a gig this Thurs, by which I mean physically putting it on off my own back, so please come down, it’s Franz Nicolay, ace acoustic musician, and Chris T-T, protest music artist, plus Copasetics and Helen Chambers.  City Screen Basement, £6, starts 8pm, Dec 1^st:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=294161147279011