As Ralph has often been wont to say - "It's not just about the music." - So when a visit to Gullivers in Manchester was on the agenda, it wasn't for the sell-out Slow Readers Club gig on Saturday, but the (nearly sold-out) Take Back Theatre performance of Ten Takes On Hope on the Monday after.
The theatre company was created earlier this year as a response to the Tory Party Conference in Manchester and aims to produce quarterly script-in-hand performances and use theatre to make a positive change.
The evening was produced and coordinated by Grant Archer, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Becx Harrison with a view to exploring social issues and creating a springboard for debate with the audience, starting small conversations which ask big questions.
The audience was invited by Take Back Theatre to join the cast and writers in the bar after the show to achieve that very thing.
This was achieved ten-fold with some stellar script writing and performances which challenged not only what hope is, but what we can do to give hope.
The informal setting and script-in-hand nature of the evening somehow made the stories being told all the more poignant, dramatic or added to the humour of each individual piece.
Each vignette; written by professional writers, was inspired by A Summer Of Hope and each used different themes or personal stories very evocatively to engage the audience members.
Whether it was the humour artfully deployed in Fish (Jennifer Platt), The Hope Factor (Rebekah Harrison), Words On A Wing (Joshua Val Martin), Rock, Paper Scissors (Ian Kershaw) or Cut and Dried (Cathy Crabb), the poignancy of All Names Have Been Changed (Victoria Brazier), Marching On Stone (Gareth George) The Shoes (Louise Wallwein) and Born (Julie Hesmondhalgh) or the outstanding drama of Detention (Sandra Cole), each delivered the same thought-provoking message in its own style.
It's probably wrong to pick out individual performances however, special mentions do go to Luke Bailey, Jo Dankin and Rico Marshall.
The next event will be Take Back: Capital and will be in response to the budget and going on tonight's performance and the quality of writing and acting on display it'll be one not to be missed!
It's not often you get an invitation to go and listen to a gargoyle grumble as well as listen to live music, so Ralph sent out his roving reporter to cover the Lynn Gerrard (aka The Grumbling Gargoyle) live book launch in The Citadel St Helens recently.
To celebrate signing a four book deal with Wallace Publishing to produce her poetry she took over her local theatre for an evening of music, comedy and spoken word.
First on the bill was local singer Amber Heyes who had won the St Helens Got Talent competition the previous year at the tender age of just 16 and this year was a Teen Star UK Finalist.
She performed a short but stunning set of covers that had the audience shouting for more. Over the summer she's performing at more local venues and the Rainhill Festival.
It was Lynn Gerrard's night though and she took to the stage unassumingly, almost apologetically approaching the microphone before taking the audience by surprise with tales of her Mother's chest stubble and nasal hair, her Gran's affection for Custard Creams and crematoriums plus her own children's effect on her ability to breast feed only under the influence of alcohol and view them through tinted glass incubators.
Despite her protestations otherwise, with the use of humour and poignancy alike, Lynn Gerrard is the consummate storyteller and is as at ease with a comedy routine as she is in availing the listener with her spoken word poetry which ranges from the introspective and thoughtful to hilarious and scary!
Her rendition of The Lovers was funny and insightful as it took a sideswipe at Asda 'chav life' with it's 'hero' Martin getting his comeuppance for 'dissing' his girlfriend Alice with Chantal - Alice "Drop-kicked him right up his thick posterior - He landed with the words 'Unwanted Item in bagging area'."
Other poems were surprisingly poignant, none more so than Removal and Dark Skies which both kept the audience in respectful silence. The ability of Lynn Gerrard to make me laugh before tearing at my heart-strings and making me cry then making me laugh again is a tribute to her writing as much as it is to the care with which she tells her tales.
Leaving to thunderous applause, she was reluctantly dragged back onstage (she even forgot to plug her book) to take another bow.
She's performing at Greater Manchester Fringe on July 24th and by invitation in Central Library in St Helens on October 15th for World Poetry Day.
Lee Wylding and Adele Halsall from Runcorn band The Fireflys took to the stage next to perform an all too short acoustic set from their 'Storyteller' Show (which was sold out and two nights hence in The Brindley Theatre) to celebrate the release of their Branches album.
Their intimate, soul searching brand of Americana was perfectly suited to the evening and it was only the time constraints of the show that prevented them from complying with the audiences request for more! If you get a chance go and see them live as Lee's honest vocals are ably backed by Adele and with the full band in attendance they're not to be missed.
Another musical gem presented itself next in the form of London singer/songwriter Officer who had graciously offered to travel up to St Helens just to perform at Lynn's launch night.
He's as magnetic in his stage performance as his music is to listen to. Playing a selection of numbers from his upcoming Myriad album, he held the audience spellbound.
His rendition of My Darling Defibrillator (his latest single release) meant he had the audience (especially the ladies) in the palm of his hand and he kept them there with some excellent crowd participation prior to closing the show to rapturous applause.
Do take the chance to catch Lynn Gerrard live as she expands on her Darkness and Decadence show for Manchester Fringe and Central Library, St Helens in March as I'm certain the tickets for her inevitable Edinburgh Fringe Show will set you back a bit - although it will most definitely be worth it!
Top news is the new book Musings & Mischief was launched on March 3rd 2016 for World Book Day in St Helens Central Library, where Lynn performed her poetry to a sold-out audience.
Welcome to Ralph's cultural corner. I bring you mutterings and musings from the Gutter of The Grumbling Gargoyle aka Lynn Gerrard. Lynn's been hoarding a wealth of written material which she's only now decided to bring to you via the marvel that is Soundcloud, using the spoken word to bring her writing to life.
Her new EP 'Life In The Gutter' is a selection of seven short poems which can be funny, introspective, haunting and dark. Take a walk with Lynn on The Dark Side if you dare. Ralph likes to call her the female John Cooper Clarke.
Ralph's favourite is 'Generation Text' - a funny, although somehow chilling commentary on the social media generation on which we all seem to rely so much nowadays.
Another, seemingly politically incorrect, aggressive and yet accurate take on modern life is 'The Kid'. From the first line of 'Stick another pie in the fat kid' your PC hackles are up, but by the end you're heart goes out for the loss of the child and you can only wonder where we're going wrong as a generation.
Lynn's writing style can be as funny as it is often gruesome, as heartfelt as it can be seemingly malign. She shows her softer side here though with 'Removal'.
With the short sharp and very funny 'Best Friend' she definitely shows her rapier like wit. You can find a selection of Lynn's work both written and spoken on her website The Grumbling Gargoyle.
Hopefully the next step for Lynn will be live performance and maybe Ralph will be bringing you her debut live performance video soon!
