I’ve always loved audio so when I found myself collaborating with The Museum of Walking (also a huge walking fan) who not only run large numbers of walkshops but also #SoundWalkSeptember, a move into thinking about soundpieces and ambient literature was inevitable. My first project was The Creative Writing Walkshop, built around my experience as a creative writing teacher and running some creative writing walkshops with The Museum of Walking. I’m delighted that this piece was part of 2019’s Sound Walk Sunday.
Since then, I’ve been keen to develop a more creative piece of my own. I love myths and fairytales and couldn’t stop thinking about the myth of the minotaur that requires every reader or listener to think about walking through the unicursal path of the labyrinth. Walling things in (or out), forcing people to take a specific route, as well as thinking about how stories of events often favour the victor or survivor, felt like contemporary issues I wanted to address. I wanted to rethink the monster and rediscover the voice of Ariadne. From that One Circuitous Path: a retelling of the minotaur myth was born.
Once I’d written the text, I was in the exciting position of looking for collaborators. Luckily for me I found composer, Ruth Bulman, whose electronic music really adds a sense urgency and drama to the piece. I also had the help of the fabulous actors, Bronwen Price and Christopher Simpson. The idea is to listen to the piece on the move. You can start your walk anywhere, but whenever you come to a fork in the road, you must always take the righthand path. To listen, go to the One Circuitous Path page here, or boost your own creativity with The Creative Writing Workshop.
I’m delighted that One Circuitous Path is part of #SoundWalkSeptember 2020. Thanks to all who came to the event on September 12th 2020.
