Killer Herbs
EMILY HUMPHRIES at Hastings Museum
Xanthe Gresham Knight as Medusa
During the Hastings Storytelling Festival I treated myself to a spellbinding performance, Plants that Kill or Cure, at the museum. Two storytellers, plus local duo Wild Poets, honed their usually-individual creations to weave a full-blooded vision of the timeless human relationship with plants and the natural world. In this magical space (the Durbar Hall adorned with medicinal herbs) reeds become musical, Medusa is obsessed with a golden apple, an unfortunate Persephone is tempted by a pomegranate… and the audience examine precious herbs from Dubai, traditionally blended for refreshing a woman’s nookiest of nooks. All were divinely dressed; a costume change half-way effectively doubled the cast.
I asked lead storyteller Xanthe Gresham-Knight how this collaboration came about, besides being a theme of her latest book Herba Mythica (also a collaboration – of thirty storytellers!). In large part, the answer is ‘18 Hours’. 18 Hours is an education and events crew based in Bexhill, whose director Mandy Curtis apparently has a magic touch with artists’ development, inspiring Gresham-Knight to turn corners in her practice.
“We storytellers are a wandering breed,” she says, “darting around the world looking for new stories.” Lockdown put the brakes on this, and many started thinking about working locally: “It was about wanting to be rooted in the community”, she continues. Before, she might finish a show and move on to something new, but Mandy “sees potential to evolve, roll-out, develop and collaborate.” Plants that Kill, and indeed the festival itself, are testaments to this.
From St Leonards Festival to the 1066 Country Walk, 18 Hours are behind many local initiatives, making art accessible in the service of community and global citizenship. The ability to value our own corner of the world, they believe, underpins our ability to be curious about other cultures and traditions. What creates common ground, Gresham-Knight says, is our capacity for wonder. That moment when we all come together and share an experience that’s an essence of geographical community. I felt that wonder filling the Durbar Hall.
You can catch Wild Poets Debra Watson and Katie Taylor, if you’re lucky, at the uniquely sumptuous Poetry Brothel Hastings: (Eventbrite.co.uk/cc/the-poetry-brothel-hastings-1788899). Gresham-Knight’s books Herba Mythica and Sussex Folktales for Children are widely available; her Youtube channel is a feast – from Buddha Babies, a poignant exploration of the ‘bio-illogical’ clock, which many childless women will relate to, to the mighty Goddess Lounge, an empowering series of six collaborations made in 2021 and funded by the Arts Council.
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