“Over and Nether. Time at one end, wind at the other”

This is a performance piece created to celebrate the publication of Goostrey- based Alan Garner’s memoir of his wartime childhood in Alderley Edge: ‘Where Shall We Run To?’ The show is a collaboration between storyteller Nick Hennessey and musician and composer John Dipper, with script-development support from Alan’s daughter Elizabeth, novelist and editor. There will be an after-show Q&A session on the research and the creative process.

Exploring the power of place, and the author’s ‘one square mile of Cheshire,’ the piece combines oral recordings of Alan Garner with folk tales, folk music, and oral archive as the source material. These are interwoven with original compositions by John, played on the 14-string Viola d’Amore, inspired by Alan Garner’s work and by the landscape of Alderley Edge itself.