Last night, I had the opportunity to attend a preview of Yarn, opening at SummerWorks this week. The show is described as a “one-human show, performed in an urban rose garden”. I also had it listed as part of My Picks at this year’s festival

The Majlis Art Garden Photo: HyeM

Part of the reason I was interested in Alex Eddington‘s (writer, composer, performer) work is that in his website, he described the almost “1,000 instruments, props and yarns involved” in the show. On that description, off I went to the Majlis Art Garden, where the show will be held for the duration of the festival.

Prior to starting, Eddington introduced us to Tyler Seguin and Helen Juvonen, the director and assistant director, respectively. The setting makes for a comfortable and friendly evening of storytelling. The audience is free to participate throughout parts of the show, but there is never any pressure to do so.

Eddington takes us on a tour of Scotland during one of his summer trips there. The point of the trip was to compose a pigeon opera, but he also needed a way to finance this endeavour. Here is where things get more interesting…

With the use of musical instruments, word play, a sheep puppet known as Buttercup, and creative body expressions, Eddington’s memories become stories. His brain likes music. His brain likes stories. Mixing his own recollections with some folk stories of female selchidhs (a.k.a. selkies), superstition about standing stones, and even stories from psychological research, we are transported into Eddington’s mind.

For 80 minutes, I sat there very attentive not wanting to miss a word, a sound… Listening to Eddington share the musings/thoughts of his “overactive inner monologue” made me smile, laugh, ponder about my own inner monologue, and how “memories are stories”.

Yarn is a charming and witty piece of storytelling, which takes us to a foreign land, and while there we come to know the inner workings of Eddington’s layered self. It is through our sharing stories of ourselves, that we share part of ourselves with one another. It is also through our recollection of past memories that we can create said stories. Yet memories “are not facts”; they are stories, remember that.

As Eddington clearly stated, “we are the stories we tell ourselves”. We can choose to believe the negative stories our inner monologues create, or we can choose to believe the more positive ones. The important part is to share these stories… share of ourselves.

I like stories. I like music. And I also like Yarn. For those of you who are curious and would like to join in this storytelling adventure, you can catch the show beginning Thursday, August 7th. For full schedule and times, visit the festival’s listings here.

Photo: HyeM