Seek Find Speak: The Lost Words @ Barnes Children’s Literature Festival
A couple of weekends ago I was lucky enough to volunteer with the Children’s Literature Festival in Barnes. I had the opportunity to meet, greet and watch some of the most wonderful authors and illustrators in kids lit today! A merry time had by all by all accounts.
However, the highlight of the festival for me was the event I was assigned to help with on the Sunday. The Lost Words took place on the common with five cast members and minimal additional staging. The troupe relied on the natural landscape, the brook, the trees and the meadows. What set there was sat among the natural environment and illustrated, beautifully, the themes of the performance.
The performance is based on the book of the same name by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane. As the children and parents are led through the woods the actors perform short extracts of poetry from the book illustrating the meanings and connotations of words to describe the natural environment. The words described were excised from the Children’s Dictionary when it was updated to include words considered more important in the modern vernacular. Words excluded include: conker, wren, bramble. New words include: chatroom, celebrity.
Seek Find Speak’s interpretation of this book was excellent in every way. The actors voices rang clearly through the common, engaging the whole audience from the smallest, babes in arms, to the oldest, grandparents indulging their wee ones.
I was lucky enough to watch the performance once and felt privileged to be the recipient of high praise from all audience members. Those who couldn’t get a ticket were understandably put out and keen to find out more about the company and where they could see it in the future, as well as where they could buy a copy of the book!
Congratulations to all involved in the festival and the Seek Find Speak in particular!
Find out more about the fantastic company that produced and performed this experience, including future show dates, here https://www.seekfindspeak.com/home
Beth's Books (and other bits and bobs) 