Weaving an engrossing fairy tale
Storytelling
A storytelling session for adults, conducted by Dominic Kelly, a contemporary storyteller based in the north of England, was held recently at the British Library.
Despite the fact that one wouldn’t associate storytelling as something which adults would necessarily enjoy, the session had a huge audience. Dominic chose to narrate a fairy tale, which had all the ingredients that make this genre of literature so fascinating – a lost king, a talking raven, a magical castle and a beautiful queen.
Talking about the story, Dominic admitted that it had bits and pieces of fairy tales from all over the world. “The beautiful thing about fairy tales is that one can literally find the same story in many different countries. People think that they are only for children but this isn’t true,” he said.
His own story began in the first person, as he narrated a back-packing trip that he took across Scotland when he was in college. He happened to cross an old castle, and here began the most intriguing part of his narration – literally a story within a story. Cleverly weaving several tales into his session, he kept the audience enthralled as each story became even more magical than the last.
The crux of the story revolved around a king who was granted a magic castle by a giant on one condition – that he give up his first born son to the giant at the age of seven. Although this theme might seem cliched, Dominic managed to keep the audience enthralled with his vivid expressions, attention to detail and subtle sense of humour.
Talking to Metrolife about his passion for storytelling, Dominic said that it began to evolve during his childhood, as his own grandfather was a storyteller. “When I became a teacher, I used stories a lot in the classroom. Then it struck me that I’d like to do this for a living,” he explained. After training with a school of storytelling and working as an apprentice, there was literally no stopping him.
He also shared that storytelling wasn’t just about performing – it required a lot of preparation. “It doesn’t make sense to remember a story by its words – that makes it come across a little dead. When I prepare a story, I spend time imagining each and every scene, down to every last detail,” he said.
Dominic has had sessions with both children and adults, and believes that both are very different. He explained, “With children, more time is spent in playing interactive games to get them involved, like call-and-respond routines. With adults, it’s easier to do longer and more sustained performances.”
This was Dominic’s first visit to Bangalore, and he just had a day to spend in the City. “When I was coming over here in a taxi, the first thing I said to my driver is that the place was so green! He told me that Bangalore is called the Garden City, and I can really see why it makes sense,” he said.
