Blue Rose

What is the right length for a story?

For many years I had told a much longer version of this tale. But last month I was asked by a local art gallery to tell a tale at the closing event of an exhibition of flower paintings. The Blue Rose was obviously suitable, yet it needed to be shortened considerably for the occasion.

Revisiting the tale helped me find a much tighter and more satisfactory way of telling it (a process explored in my From Page to Stage workshops).

Note on gender: using English makes it relatively easy to be non-specific. Telling in German, as I did at the art gallery, required considerably more thought!

I first heard the story years ago, told in German by Regina Haas-Sauer. It is certainly open to a variety of interpretations, from extremely sentimental to feisty!

More about blue roses, including a reference to this story.

 

Disclaimer
The video clips here are all amateur quality, shot in various theatres or, as here, in my home studio.

Their intention is just to show the range of my storytelling and give a flavour of a live performance.

Permission is granted for use in non-commercial educational contexts.

The videos are © Richard Martin.

Professionally recorded CDs and DVDs are available here.