An evening with Gervase Phinn packs church venue
ROCHDALE Festival of Literature and Ideas throws up the opportunity to see some of the best speakers in Britain. The audience packed into St Chads Parish Church was enraptured by the wit and wisdom of Gervase Phinn.
A total professional, he came on when he was expected, spoke without notes eloquently and with passion and finished exactly on time!
It’s difficult to pick out why a man with a tremendous academic record, a professor, government inspector and successful writer of popular books also can be such a superb raconteur. His Barnsley tones help, his natural wit and love of language both contribute, but it’s probably his clear love of children and education which seals the deal.
Picking out funny anecdotes about what children have said to him is easy; there are so many of them, but what shines through is the way in which they tell the truth to him and how well he responds to them. Without patronising or making fun of them.
From his phone introduction to the nun who headed up St John’s the Baptist school:
‘Hello, this is the head of St John the Baptist, ‘through the young lady who painted a picture of a girl praying to a yellow smear, ‘This is my prayer for the sick’ to the little girl whose aunt had ‘sixty-five roses’ and was very sad (Cystic Fibrosis), Gervase had the audience laughing along. Not at the young people but at the clarity with which they saw the absurdity of the world and the adults in it.
There is a serious side to his work. He sees books as the architecture of our society and worries that young people may not be reading to the same extent as their parents. He values parents and the love they provide for their children. He demonstrates this in his poetic response to the famous Larkin poem which has been anthologised.
Gervase Phinn always entertains and sees the funny side of language. His account of the Xmas story will ring true for all parents who have watched their infants perform as Mary, Joseph or an ox.
The story of the damp settee song will live long in the memory (Lead you in the dance said he). Thank you to the Maskews, The Royal Toby, St Chad’s and the Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival.
AYCKBOURNE AT THE CURTAIN THEATRE
in Distress Trilogy first seen in Scarborough at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 2001.
The play, which is written in traditional three-scene format, is the story of a young couple who are expecting the visit of both their parents for dinner.
The meal would be both an introduction of the two families and an opportunity to announce their intention to marry. A young girl on the run from a jealous lover seeks sanctuary and in true farce fashion causes more than a hiccup in the proceedings.
Josh Potts and Emma Bradburn turned in a very creditable performance of the couple treading the line between farce and frivolity with dexterity. Rachel Meyer played a most attractive and believable damsel in distress.
Peter Dignan played her bodyguard/jailer and Sue Stephenson the young man’s mother. Andy Hall and Lois Kelly played the girls’ parents.
There is much in the art of farce that demands a great deal, the pace and timing must be impeccable. Roleplay was a triumph. Congratulations actors on your their expertise in this difficult area.