Shepherding tales come to Shropshire
Having toured the length of Britain from South Wales to the Scottish Borders, Shropshire performers Chris Eldon Lee and Sally Tonge are bringing their new show about the art of keeping sheep home to Shrewsbury.
The hour-long entertainment entitled ‘Sheep Tales’ has been described as “the perfect show for anyone who’s ever worn wool”. And the duo will give four lunch time performances at The Wightman Theatre in The Square; at 1pm on June 30 and at the same time on July 1, 14 and 15.
Chris and Sally of the veteran comedy trio Three Men in a Bowtie will present in words and song the story of shepherding; season by season, decade by decade, tragedy by tragedy and joke by joke.
The tales are drawn almost exclusively from newly-collected oral history interviews with sheep farming folk in Shropshire, Wales, Cumbria, Yorkshire and North Northumberland and are full of country wit and wisdom about the romance and realism of shepherding life.
“The show includes dramatic stories of the severe winters of 1947”, said Sally, “when being a hill shepherd was deemed a worse fate than becoming a World War Two infantryman; and the prolonged white out of 1963, when helicopter drops were a lifeline.”
There are also detailed descriptions of the art of lambing, how to castrate a ram with your bare teeth and the encroachment of wind farms into the rural landscape. And as the last generation of traditional shepherds hang up their crooks, it explores the fragile future of their unique existence.
“It’s a timely, entertaining and enlightening hour, charting a changing way of life from the shepherds’ viewpoint,” said Chris, who conducted several of the interviews and compiled the show. "It’s jolly funny too. It’s amazing what humour can be found in adversity. Some of the stories still make me chortle, despite having told them for months.”
Tickets for The Wightman performances are £7.50 and can be purchased on the door or booked on line at www.thewightman.co.uk . ‘Sheep Tales’ will also be performed at the Festival at the Edge story-telling weekend at Whitchurch at the end of July.
