A fascinating kaleidoscope of tales, and life stories, never to be repeated again…that’s Guid Crack for you!
📍Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh
📅 23 Oct
💷 £5
🕖 6:00pm
🕖 Running time (approx.): 2 hours (with one interval)
🗣️ Leader: Lily Asch
🎂 Parental Discretion
🎭 Wheelchair Accessible Venue, Wheelchair Accessible Toilets. Audio Induction Loop
Storyteller Lily Asch, last seen enchanting a Storytelling Centre only days ago with Lost Stories, returned to facilitate the first of two Guid Crack, open-form storytelling, sessions, at this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival.
Asch, founder & director of Real Talk, a social enterprise dedicated to mental health storytelling, has a singularly serene presence, a calm she is able to share with those around her. It’s a vital gift when dealing with stories so explicitly born of the most vulnerable areas of human life, and one she employs with no little skill.
Of the evening’s content I shall say little to respect the privacy inherent to such intimate story sharing. Suffice to say, those who took the floor, from professional to amateur, made for a uniquely diverse programme. Memoir, history, and folklore all combined to give pause, illuminate, and yes, entertain. For all the suffering inherent to human life, there is also joy in sharing & connection, in adding to the common wellspring of experience, and inviting the possibility of enlightenment.
I’ll make one exception to this rule of discretion to namecheck Brian Lowry, anecdotalist of a fascinating life, local Edinburgh bus-driver, and smashing, genuinely funny tale-teller. You could do far worse than check out his book of true stories available to all those who care to click.
Returning to the evening’s facilitator, Lily Asch introduced small elements of meditation between stories, a device which could easily feel forced, but not in her experienced hands. She infused the two hours of intimate storytelling with a welcome, and considerate calm, encouraging minds to remain in the now, rather than clamouring for what came next.
Guid Crack is a very long running event, which pre-lockdown met on the last Friday of each month upstairs at the Waverley Bar a few doors down the Royal Mile from the Storytelling Centre. The second special Festival Guid Crack sessions will take place October 31st, and in quite the change, is a spooky Halloween themed night! If you fancy a night surrounded by storytellers and their ghastliest stories (many of which won’t be written down anywhere), then you know where to be!
P.S. Since Lockdown, new management in the Waverley Bar have yet to sign up to hosting the return of the group. If you happen to be passing do feel free to drop in and loudly discuss your intention to drink the bar dry should Guid Crack return. Caveat this could be done entirely non-alcoholically, but if you’re gong to hit the Irn-Bru to exhaustion, do warn others of impending explosions.
(Featured Photography Credit: Scottish International Storytelling Festival)
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