Michele O’Brien shared ‘I'm Glad I Asked’ at our Shaftesbury Jolly Day
What a fun-filled session we had today at our Shaftesbury Jolly Day. We were joined by the very talented actress, arts practitioner and award-winning storyteller, Michele O’Brien, who shared parts of her one-woman (and a puppet) show with us.
Michele brought along several boxes containing small objects to show us, including a doll’s chair, a doll, and a Christmas cracker. Each item had a label attached with a question written on it, and these were designed to spark conversations between mothers and daughters. She also had a lovely little suitcase filled with photos, memorabilia and 2 beautiful little puppets, you can see photos of all of these in the gallery below.
The I’m Glad I Asked show was inspired by Michele’s memories of caring for her 91 year old mother, Gena, and the time the conversations they had together. It’s a moving and very relatable piece of storytelling exploring the joys, frustrations, shared memories, and the love that binds generations together.
The lifesize puppet represents Michele’s mother in the show and Michele plays the daughter. Michele shared stories with us about her mum, who had a stroke in her 90s. Up until then she was still driving herself around and was very proud of the fact she never had any points on her license. Her hair was always beautifully coiffured and she loved to play golf and even set up a women’s golf club. In her younger days, she was a telephonist, which sparked lovely memories for Jean as she was a telephonist too.
Michele asked us about our memories of home. Virginia immediately said “home is where the heart is” which is so true. For Elizabeth, she said it was wherever her parents were and it didn’t matter if her parents moved house, it was always about being with them and feeling safe. For Anni, it was the sight of a Rayburn that brought back memories of home, and for Sarah, it was a warm, cosy fire. John joked that his home had been the cab in his arctic lorry as he was in it so often! He told me he drove one of the first Scania’s in this country when he was just 26 years old.
After sharing our memories, we did some movement together, led by Michele, to music that her brother composed. Incredibly he played 5 different types of clarinet in the piece – not all at the same time of course! Take a look at the video below to see how we did. We finished off the morning by getting really creative with paper and tin foil and made some jolly splendid hats. There was so much laughter as we each modelled our creation, they were a joy to see. There are lots of lovely photos in the gallery below for you to enjoy.
I’m Glad I Asked was created through funding from Arts Council England and is well worth seeing. You can find out more about it here.
