Short Fuse, May 2010 - On The Road

Short Fuse is a monthly live short form event held at the Y Theatre in Leicester. It's an informal evening where the audience sit around with their drinks in a cabaret style set up and performers read their short fiction and occasional non fiction pieces. This month the topic was travel and journeys and as always the interpretation was varied and surprising.

The first tale was by Catherine Digman who is runs Leicester's monthly writing retreat, which I hope to be covering in June. Catherine's story was a personal journey, a young artist looking for a job to pay the bills. It was a well paced story, clear delivery and entertaining. It ended at the perfect point, leaving the audience wondering. Catherine was an engaging reader walking us through the moments so many of us have experienced, when we give in, decide to grow up and try to find a job. A really strong start to the evening.

Robert Marriot was up next with a life story told through a song "do it again". Using repetition, the song and other sensory experiences to build a life story and bring us back to each important point. It was an interesting structure and the imagery was strong, a bit of a sad tale, delivered pretty well.

Morag Gormall was the last story of the first part of the evening with an autobiographical tale from her childhood. Morag demonstrated how a simple telling, almost just sharing the facts, can build into an excellent story. A sinister tale which would have been creepy as fiction was disturbing as autobiography. The delivery was strong and clear in keeping with the style of the tale. Possibly my favourite of the night and definitely the most challenging.

Finishing off the first section with some music The Orange played a short set of fairly folky music, with some entertaining banter between tracks. I'm a fan of this sort of music and enjoyed it, would like to see them in a pub at some point, preferably when I am not driving.

After the break with glasses reloaded, the First Monday Ukalalee Club performed a few tracks. It was completely joyful and a bit ridiculous. Wonderful. The mood of the whole room lifted. Funny how a mixed bunch of players and some not perfect singing can be an expression of absolute delight that carries everyone with them. They were also promoting the tub up event so go check that out. www.tubup.org Apparently you can make a functional ukalalee out of utterly butterly tubs.

After the music Nick Leech presented a tale of a night off gone wrong for Catholic Priest, funny and delivered confidently it was an irreverent treat. The hapless priest discovering at the moment all his dreams are about to be come true that one small error can bring it all tumbling down.

Finally Jamie Mollart presents Ice Field Parkway. The only piece of travel writing of the evening and captivating despite the nervous start. with vivid imagery and a perfectly captured atmosphere, this tale of a night under the stars was a perfect end to the evening. Jamie's performance took a little while to settle in but was sufficient to carry the story.

Next month the subject is taboo and i'm really looking forward to it.