Spinning Yarns

October 22 - November 2, 2003

A rich tapestry of music, family, joy and love.

Spinning Yarns is a colloquialism that means to tell stories that intertwine and meander along. This piece tells six stories based on Stephen Guy-McGrath's childhood growing up in Newfoundland. Filled with down-home humour and fiddle-playing, you will be captivated by the charm of the people from "The Rock".

By Stephen Guy-McGrath

Directed by Gillian Strange

Articles and Reviews

Spinning Yarns a Heartfelt Collection of Stories

Ashley Goodfellow, The Orangeville Banner,

October 24, 2003

Knew as soon as Stephen Guy-McGrath stepped onto the stage and offered the audience a bottle of Creemore Springs, that his unscripted production Spinning Yarns would hinge itself somewhere between familiarity and candid comedy.

And in telling a handful of heartfelt stories about his childhood in Newfoundland -- relating the idiosyncrasies of east coast traditions and lifestyles, and drawing on the humour of human nature -- Guy-McGrath charters a boisterous voyage that is both timeless and funny. Weaving together the art of storytelling, recollections of youth and the invigorating music of the fiddle (played by Guy-McGrath and accompanied by Shawn Campbell on acoustic guitar), Spinning Yarns easily captures the audience, heart and soul.

Guy-McGrath's performance is enthusiastic and honest; his parlance is fluent, both in linking the stories with a common thread and expressing his emotion to the audience.

The set, designed to provide a backbone for the theme of spinning yarns (storytelling on a ship), also lends itself to each individual plot with small tokens to symbolize each story's significance. But really, in a production such as this one, props don't do the justice that mental imagery does. I'm still laughing at the image I've created of Guy-McGrath as a child, strung up like a pinata by his two older brothers and being swung at with everything from snowballs to walkers by the neighbourhood.

Ah, those precious childhood memories.