A good storyteller for adults is a very special treat, and Diane Edgecomb is an excellent storyteller. She can make you laugh, or she can break your heart. Using tone of voice and body language, she evokes emotion and character. Instrumental music and song enhance the experience for the audience. She says she aims to “make people slow down, dream, laugh, reflect, sometimes cry.”
The Boston Pagan Examiner was present at Ms. Edgecomb’s 2011 “The Winter Solstice in Legend and Song.” Ms. Edgecomb was accompanied by musicians Margot Chamberlain and Tom Megan. She told stories short and long, funny and heartbreaking, from all over the world. All had a holiday or Solstice theme. That evening Ms. Edgecomb used her gift of storytelling and song to “enkindle the Sun’s fading light with our own warmth and light.”
Most of the stories and songs were modern interpretations of old myths and folktales. “These are our myths,” she said, “and when we let them live again we see new life and new meaning.” She brought to life well-known characters such as Zeus and Loki, as well as lesser-known ones such as the Yew Tree of the Cherokee people and the Four Winds of the ancient Greeks.
Ms. Edgecomb is a true artist, able to evoke humor, heartbreak, or the joy of first love by her voice and manner. She can take on the personality and body language of an old man, a maiden, an ancient god, or an ox. When the donkey character spoke, he sounded exactly like a talking donkey would. More, she is a talented showman. Just when she had finished a tale of tragedy, all three performers played a beautiful instrumental piece. Towards the end of the evening, when the audience was getting a little restless, she treated them to a short tale of light and promise, then invited everyone to sing along on a rollicking Wassail song.
Most of the evening was devoted to the celebration of the reborn Sun for which the Solstice is so well known, but some of it also honored the Dark’s lessons and peace. “We’re not just doing the old myths. We’re trying to tune this audience, which is a modern audience, to the seasonal changes that are happening and the journey we’re going through as human beings right now.”
Ms. Edgecomb, Margot Chamberlain and Tom Megan perform “The Winter Solstice in Legend and Song” every December, once in Somerville MA and once in Jamaica Plain MA. Ms. Edgecomb and Ms. Chamberlain also perform “In the Grove” every Summer Solstice in Jamaica Plain MA (June 15 and 16 2012). Learn more at livingmyth.com.
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