The Song of Hilde

Trying desperately to answer "yes" to the question "Have you ever responded to a grapevine item?" in the Paris members survey, I saw the item about Roland Lloyd Parry’s play, "The Song of Hilde" and I said to myself: that’s it!

So, wearing my most fatherly hat, I ordered my daughter Abla, who is in London to go and see the play.

She came back with those (very) few lines (we are all a bit lazy in the family):

The vaulted Baron’s Court Theatre, in the basement of the Curtain’s Up pub was the perfect setting for NUJ member and Paris-based journalist Roland Lloyd Parry’s The Song of Hilde. The play is delivered in this cosy, slightly mysterious, atmosphere in the vain of traditional storytelling and is based on the real bloody Viking invasion of Whitby. It recounts the tale of a nun, Hilde, who, through sorcery, charms a Viking warrior to protect her. Lloyd Parry says, “I saw an old picture of nuns who cut off their lips to scare away the Vikings. It’s haunted me ever since”.

American actor Christopher Tully delivers a captivating performance as he interprets all the characters. Turning the tale into a one man show was a risky enterprise but the way Tully uses body and voice and his overall energy means the play never recedes into monotone narration.