THE BALLAD OF THE DRIFTWOOD MERMAID
A Storytelling Drama by Marty Ross
No. 28, Market Square, Belper,
Derbyshire DE56 1FZ.
Saturday 5 December 7.30pm. Tickets £7
/ £5 concession.
Storyteller MARTY ROSS (BBC Radio
drama; Doctor Who & Dark Shadows audio drama) returns to Belper
with his latest dramatic performance, a very modern version of a
classic folk tale from his native Scotland, with all the mix of
magic, poetry and eerie romance that implies.
Marty Ross has become a regular
performer at Belper's No. 28 Arts Centre with shows such as The
Blackwater Bride, 21st Century Poe & Blood And Stone.
For his latest show, he returns to the folklore and fairy tale
tradition of his native Scotland, drawing inspiration from a legend
of the Solway coast between South West Scotland and North West
England, the tale of 'the Haunted Ships', lying sunken out in the
deep waters and haunted specifically both by ghosts and by fairies –
not the twee, cute butterfly winged fairies of Victorian
sentimentality, but the fierce and seductive and sometimes downright
frightening fairies of Scots / Irish folklore.
The original story concerns a Laird and
his wife, the fairies trying to tempt the wife off into their
undersea kingdom. But Ross is a storytelling 'modernist', always keen
to move the resurgent art of storytelling away from being too quaint
and olde worlde... and so in his version of the story our central
characters are a very modern couple, David and Jenny who've made some
serious money with an internet business and have channelled that
money into refurbishing a house on the Galloway cliffs. But the
marriage has its problems and when a handsome young sculptor, named
Finn, who may have a connection to the 'otherworld' of the Haunted
Ships, charms Jenny, the scene is set for a climax of drama and
terror and magic.
MARTY ROSS is well established as a
playwright, particularly with radio drama for the BBC, including The
Darker Side Of The Border, Ghost Zone, Catch My Breath, My Blue
Piano, Rough Magick, Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk, Moyamensing and The
Dead Of Fenwick Moor. He has also written two Doctor Who audio dramas
and the award-nominated Dark Shadows: Dress Me In Dark Dreams. Redder
Than Roses and The Woman On The Bridge were commissioned for and
performed at the Buxton Festival. Crooker's Kingdom was performed
this Halloween at Cromford Mill. Shortly to be produced is Romeo &
Julian, commissioned by Amazon Audible.
As a storyteller he has performed
successfully at the likes of the Edinburgh Fringe, London Horror
Festival and Glasgow Southside Fringe. He regularly performs in the
East Midlands, where he currently lives, with regular shows at No. 28
in Belper and Chilwell Arts Theatre in Nottingham. Shows have
included 21st Century Poe, The Blackwater Bride, Ghosts Of
Christmas Past, The Strange Tale Of The Glasgow Golem, Blood And
Stone & The Gorbals Vampire.
