Broken Shells: A Medieval Sea Story

News
20 June 2017

Friday 30 June: 17.30-18.30, Manchester Cathedral

Storyteller and academic Daisy Black brings to life Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale – a tale of love, fear, violence and the queer, cold seas which roil and coil between nations.

Custance, who has beauty without pride, youth without foolishness and strength without tyranny, finds herself cast adrift at sea. Forced to endure hostile lands and people and carve paths for herself among strange cultures, the toughest of Chaucer’s heroines strings her strength across the oceans, telling us what it is to love and to survive.

Set among the eddies and currents of medieval romance, mythology and folk song, this one-woman show tells a haunting, visceral, occasionally funny tale that will whirl round your imagination, lace your tongue with salt and take you across the sapphire-worked seas to walk with the creatures at the far edges of the map.

The story is told against the backdrop of Manchester Cathedral's medieval quire and is delivered in partnership with the Universities of Manchester and Wolverhampton and the Medievalism in the Modern World conference (MAMO).

The performance is one hour long and is suitable for ages 13 and up. This event is donations only, with any profits going to The Booth Centre (Manchester) and Sheffield Donations for Refugees.

Dr Daisy Black is a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Wolverhampton. She specialises in medieval religious drama, with a particular interest in time and gender and food in performance. Recent works include articles on the hortus conclusus in Cornish religious drama, on the nails used to crucify Christ in the York ‘Crucifixion’ pageant, and on domestic arguments between Mary and Joseph in the N-Town plays. She also works as a freelance storyteller, theatre director, arts advisor and writer, and has produced creative work for bodies including the Royal College of Physicians, Manchester Cathedral and Swansea’s National Waterfront Museum. Broken Shells was her first one-woman show, and she is currently working on her next major storytelling project, The Bayeux Tapestry: The Full Yarn.