One evening as I pulled into a retirement home after an exhausting day, I looked at the props, set, pieces, sound equipment, puppet boxes and sighed. I really didn’t want to do another load-in followed by the inevitable strike after the show.
I was working at the Gravenhurst Opera House in 1999, when Charlene sent me a copy of her book, Lilt of Laughter, Trace of Tears and immediately was struck by the fact that these were not simply well written Irish stories, but tales that came to life when spoken aloud. Each story contained several voices and each voice was a distinct character. You could hear them speaking.
Ever since, I had been toying with the idea of turning this into a one-man show and so had begun committing some of my favourites to memory. I told Charlene that one day I would, with her blessing, like to perform her work. She gave me that blessing.
So, there I was, years later standing by my now-open car door, staring at the necessary load-in that lay ahead. I had been practising Charlene’s stories in my hotel rooms during the tours, adding simple blocking and perfecting nuance and accent and knew that at some point I couldn’t keep self directing. I would need to test this material in front of an audience. Why not now?
I shut the car door and with nothing in my arms walked into the retirement home.
The audience was already assembled in the room, which startled me as I usually took 30 minutes to set up. “They’ve been looking forward to seeing you again and so started coming into the room right after dinner. Need any help bringing in your things?” I was asked. “No”, I said, “I’m fine.”
I returned to the car, nervous now as I knew the audience had high expectations. They were already seated and I was scheduled to go on in 30 minutes at 7pm. I selected a hat, a cane, vest and sweater. I returned to the activity room and set these items nearby, donned the Irish cap and started with the first story, The Tourist Dollar, in my best Irish accent...”There we were, doin’ our damnedest to decide how best to get the tourists pouring into the west country by the cartful. Tilted back on the hindermost legs of our chairs, our pipes foggin’ the place and a jar of the needful to hand, we cogitated.”
I had forgotten the power of storytelling/reciting. No props, no puppets, no visual aids, gags, guitars, mics, just words: great stories, well told.
It started there, in that retirement home. I rediscovered the power of theatre and the spoken word. It was a memorable night and the audience was still buzzing with joy as I drove away.
That experiment in the retirement home has grown considerably and is now a polished one-hour, one-man show.
In 2023, Theatre Collingwood picked up the show for two sold out performances. In the fall of 2023 Lilt of Laughter, Trace of Tears played to sold out houses in Guelph at the Guelph Arts Councils’ new performance venue “ArtBar”. 2024 has seen several more performances with a particularly wonderful Mother’s Day performance in May in the very charming Edgar Community Hall, just outside of Barrie. I love old community halls! And so it begins.
For the past seven years I have been performing what I call “Street Theatre”, walking tours under the name JayWalking Guelph. This past September The Gwelf Early Days Walking Tour was performed indoors as a multi-media theatre performance at Guelph’s River Run Centre. That show reminded me just how much I enjoy performing in a theatre. You don’t have to stress about a rained out show.
With that in mind Lilt of Laughter, Trace of Tears is now available for your local theatre space, or community hall, It features an array of delightful Irish characters who find themselves in terribly amusing situations, and no, you don’t need to be Irish to identify with the universal themes adeptly tucked into the text. The characters range in age from 18 to 88 and we even meet The Widow O’Donnell and a cat, Frances O’Feline.
Audiences have told me time and time again, how much they love this well-written script, performed simply without lasers, glitz, explosions, and amplifiers. Just great stories that warm the soul. For one hour one is transported to another world. I hope you will invite Lilt of Laughter, Trace of Tears to your community.
For information about Lilt of Laughter, Trace of Tears visit the blog at https://liltoflaughter.blogspot.com/ My website https://www.jaywalkingguelph.ca/ is also still active, although the walking tours are winding down.
If you have questions or wish to speak further contact me at wilsonjay7@gmail.com 519 820-3269.
