It's nice to see Robert Lloyd Parry not
only mentioned, but interviewed and pictured, in the national press. The Nunkie Theatre shows are the first item in a Guardian feature on the dark side of East Anglia. Roger, as the writer observe
doesn't settle for simply reading aloud the stories that James wrote in the first three decades of the last century, but attempts to recreate the experience of the author reading them himself to rapt students and fellow scholars at King's or Eton College in the final part of his life. Lloyd Parry is only 42, but looks uncannily like James did in late middle-age, with huge shoulders crammed into a waistcoat and jacket, thin-rimmed round spectacles and a slicked-down flick of receding mousy hair. He has toured the eight stories in his repertoire all over England, but tends to favour old buildings, frequently those in East Anglia, the part of the country where James lived and worked for much of his life, and where the majority of his stories are set
I would quibble with Tom Cox's Eton College reference, as MRJ wasn't in late middle age when he began to read ghost stories to friends. But the point is made well - RLP does a splendid job of recreating the author as a kind of living prose style. Overall, this appreciative piece makes some good points, not least the difficulty of reciting (RLP doesn't use a script) a story to a modern audience with a fair mix of attention spans.
No comments:
Post a Comment