Paring live performance right back to its very core, The Devil’s Violin Company present us with a deep, dark evening of ancient stories. Tautly told and expert at drawing us in, the three rich tales are each interwoven with moreish, mesmerising live music that is as much a part of each story as its carefully chosen words.
Introducing the performance with a reminder of the story of Scheherezade and her 1001 nights of storytelling, her knack of leading the listener to the climax of the story and then leaving him hungry for more until the next night, the storyteller begins his first tale. This is ‘Once Upon a Time’ stuff, with princes and princesses, enchantments and apothecaries, knights, journeys, quests… and a happily ever after? We suspect not, as only a few moments into the first story, something devastating happens to the hero of the tale. Then, at the story’s climax, the storyteller leaves the story, and begins another, just as the wily Scheherezade did. The surprise is that we, like the Emperor, are completely beguiled.
The story matter is complex and twisting – fresh tellings of timeless folk stories, with recognisable characters and the sort of moral debates you can really get stuck into when gossiping over the proverbial garden fence. It is delicious and life-affirming to revisit well-known folktales. Knowing the traditions of Lear, Cordelia, and Cinderella, hearing snatches of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale, Sir Gawain, Tristan, Odysseus, Faustus, you can think you’ll know what will happen next. You are reminded of times in your life when you’ve heard stories like these before; they are in the fabric of our growing up. They transport you to another world where people are caricatures or stock characters, and everyday objects are ciphers for emotion.
This Storyteller (Daniel Morden, with director Sally Cookson), with the boldness required by his ‘trade’, tells these stories as if they were his, appropriating the material as the teller of an urban legend will appropriate the lead character into his or her own extended family. He doesn’t interact with the three musicians – violinist, cellist and accordionist, but leaves time for their melodies to infuse the world he creates, marinating the tales with a salty, spicy concoction that seems to come itself from somewhere far away. A final dimension is added to this particular performance by a wonderful sign language interpreter, who shows that words aren’t always necessary when expressing tales of love and adventure.
The simplicity of A Love Like Salt’s presentation belies its intricacy, the careful structure of each narrative, its layering with melodies, its heartbeat-perfect timing. There may be no new stories, but The Devil’s Violin Company are not afraid of working hard to dress up some old ones, and the work has paid off.