• theatre
  • features
  • faqs
  • contact
  • theatre
  • features
  • faqs
  • contact
  Art Murmurs - Wellington Reviews

Reviews

A Tension to Detail

29/2/2016

Comments

 

Dell Mitchell

Picture
For a storytelling show that has been performed around the world over the last couple of years, Gerard Harris comes across as very unscripted.  He sets the scene by telling us that we shouldn’t believe everything we hear, but these are his stories and so are true to him.  Harris then takes us on a journey through his...

...childhood telling his stories with a perfect mix of energy, intellect and self-deprecation. With excellent use of timing and reveals he has the audience completely engaged, everyone is leaning forward, smiling and laughing along together.

Somewhere near the middle of his set he suddenly takes us somewhere darker, with expert precision he builds the tension, throws in a small diffusion, and then goes dark again - there is no punchline at the end, but there is an acknowledgement of its darkness and the reminder that for all of us  “sometimes not everything makes it into your official story”.  The jump into the next incredibly ridiculous and lively story makes us forget the dark times, as he for himself forgot them for a time.  From there we are kept laughing with his high energy stories finishing with a concession to the nature of storytelling and a reminder that we choose our own facts.  

After the show I caught up with Harris and within moments of meeting it becomes clear that he is a natural storyteller and one needs to ask very few questions to keep him talking.  He takes me on a remarkable journey through the origins of storytelling as a piece of theatre, through to the more recent popularisation of it across the world and then he tells me about the moment at a fringe show seven or so years ago that began his journey to becoming a storyteller.  

“So this guy was telling this story about how he was in a riot in London in the late 80’s or early 90’s, when I remembered that I had a story about that very day and that very incident and I thought that’s fantastic!  The story was cool, it wasn't the greatest story in the world, but it was cool and he told it brilliantly, and I remember thinking that's what I want to do, I wish I could do that. The funny thing is that I never thought I could because when I was a stand up I only did one liners, I did not do stories, and I didn't do anything true. But, eventually I went to a storytelling night, just to watch, and I saw six people get up and I thought ‘I've got a better story than them’, so I went and did one - it was meant to be seven minutes and I think I did about 20.  But it was a good story and the promoter of the night has indulged me for five or six years ever since, everyone else gets 7-10 (minutes) and he's like 'ok I'm gonna put you at the end, try and keep it tight' and then I will try and keep it tight but inevitably I will run over.”

Harris is insightful about both his work and the effect it can have on people.  When talking about the part of his current show that involves a story about a narrow escape from childhood sexual abuse and how that story came to be told he says:

“I thought it's time to tell that story because, as I may have said in the show, it had no identifiable effect on me aside from perhaps a fear of a big man trying to dominate me.  The way I tell it is the way I believe it happened, but I felt like it was time to tell it. And I will never forget the atmosphere in the room when I got up and told it, because it was like that cliché - all the air was sucked out of the room, the second I said what I said and I didn't do any caveat, just 'this is what happened' with the entire bulldog thing, because that bit is also true, at which there was some tremendous laughter, which I obviously thought was because it was funny, but it wasn't, it was relief, a HUGE relief that I had moved off of the topic.  I’ve told that story now about 70 times as part of the show and it is definitely one of the stories that people come up to me and go 'yeah actually a similar thing happened to me' – and of course, it's an almost foundational experience.  Everyone's been born, fallen in love, had a broken heart, most have been in an accident, quite a lot of people have had that experience and obviously far worse and I’m lucky and I hope that is understood that my position was such that I get to talk it.  I know, and I always knew, that when I'm talking on stage about that particular incident, that a significant portion of the people there are, in their head at least, going 'yip, I know this, I know what's coming' and I have to trust that absolutely everyone in that room is going to be ok with hearing that bit of my story.”  

Harris is incredibly open and honest, we talk about his (relatively) recent ADHD diagnosis and how that changed his view of himself (and his past) as well as the affects it has on him now, including as inspiration for the current show (and the next show) - Attention Seeker, which you can catch on May 6th at the Refinery ArtSpace in Nelson.  We explore some of the differences (and similarities) between British, Canadian and New Zealand cultures, with the recognition that sometimes “it takes a foreigner to point these things out”.  This includes his amazement at just how many cafes and bars that Wellington has and his discovery of and consequent love affair with feijoas (seriously ask him about them sometime - I didn’t think it was possible to love a fruit so much).  We end by chatting about life as a creative person who is constantly travelling - he fully acknowledges that he is only ‘half-way suited’ for most of the things that he does. However, he doesn’t like to be called brave for getting on stage, as it is something that is so intrinsic to who he is.  He recognises he is a talker, and has “probably talked himself out of more sex than he has had”, yet he follows that statement with how he has learnt to allow the right thing to happen by “just shutting the fuck up and pretending you are supposed to be there”.

In short Gerard Harris is open, honest, intelligent and energetic - and he puts all of that into his storytelling.  So go and see his shows, laugh really loudly (he appreciates the feedback), chat to him after (if he is not running off to something else) and perhaps most importantly take him a feijoa.
Comments

    Local Honest Reviews

    At Art Murmurs, our aim is to provide honest and constructive art reviews to the Wellington community.

    Archives

    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    July 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All
    All Age Appropriate
    Art
    BATS
    Beauty Standards
    Black Comedy
    Body Positive
    Circa
    Circus
    Comedy
    Comedy Festival 2018
    Comedy Festival 2019
    Comedy Festival 2023
    Comedy Gala 2022
    Community Theatre
    Dance
    Devised
    Documentary
    Drag
    Drama
    Emerging Artist
    Exhibition
    Experimental
    Female Artists
    Feminism
    Feminist
    Festival
    For Kids
    Fringe
    Fun
    Gallery
    Gryphon Theatre
    Hannah Playhouse
    Heart + Music
    History
    Improv
    Interactive
    International
    Interview
    Ivy
    Lighting
    Local
    Mental Health
    Monologue
    Music
    Musical
    Neurodiverse
    New Writing
    New Zealand
    NZ Comedy
    NZ Fringe
    NZIF
    On Tour
    Performance Poetry
    Photography
    Photospace Gallery
    Physical Theatre
    Political
    Politics
    Premiere
    Pyramid Club
    Queer
    Race
    Roxy LIVE
    Science
    Scruffy Bunny Improv Theatre
    Sexual Violence
    Shakespeare
    Site Specific
    Site-specific
    Sketch
    Solo Show
    Song
    Spoken Word
    Stagecraft
    Stand Up
    Storytelling
    Tahi Festival
    Te Auaha
    Theatre
    Thought Provoking
    Thought-provoking
    Thriller
    Toi Poneke Gallery
    Verbatim
    Victoria University
    Violence
    Virtual Theatre
    Weekly
    Wellington
    Wellington Footlights
    Wellington Repertory