- THE CHERRY SCRUB
An exploration of the interdependencies of land and body; the heart and the river's flow; the ovaries of womanhood and the cedar scrub - with story conflict, as navigation towards an understanding of how we may belong.
“The land’s power is central to the tale. It seduces, comforts and confronts the cursed girl in tandem with the growing power of a curse within her as her two children come into being.
The poetry of Preston’s writing is as formidably potent as is her performance.
Preston fills the expansive space of The Yurt with very finely crafted characterisations, delivered with precise grace eliciting silent moments of pause which of themselves say so much more deeply about the inner heart and minds of her characters.
It is a powerfully captivating, electric 70 minutes in which Preston owns your breathless attention from start to finish.”
***** David O’Brien, Barefoot Review.
THE CHERRY SCRUB
The Cherry Scrub - A theatrical storytelling performance inspired by the traditional, haunting, South American folktale ‘La Llorona’ – transposed into a modern woman’s journey into the heart of Bundjalung Country, Northern Rivers, New South Wales.
This work-in-development was invited to be part of a three-week residency program, The Creative Lab, Storytelling Beyond Words - Emerson College, U.K. in late 2022. Residency mentors were Roi Gal-Or and Karmit Evenzur. The drafted writing was simplified into story form, and then enriched through individualised mentoring, radically honest feedback, and group showings; processes through which it became shifted and shaped into a renewed dramatic narrative with a sharpened core.
The Cherry Scrub is a deep investigation into dark places, focusing upon themes of connection to place, motherhood, sexuality and ancestral trauma as an influence upon intimate relationship.
Roi Gal-Or, The Creative Lab Residency, The School of Storytelling
DRAMATURGY
The Cherry Scrub was further dramaturgically worked into shape through a rehearsal and writing process, guided by creative director Kasia Pudlo, ready for inclusion in Adelaide Fringe, 2023. This staging of the work was seen as a testing ground {through fire} as a way to refine the scripting. It was performed in an intimate venue over four nights, seating 30 people in the semi-round space of the ‘Yurt’ – produced by Every Old Sock Meets an Old Shoe and presented Britt Plummer and Nick Phillips, for the Migration Museum Chapel & Yurt. Production assistance and inspiration was provided for this project by writer/performer Andi Snelling.
Writer/performer Lynn Frances Preston in The Cherry Scrub, Adelaide Fringe Festival 2023.
Original dramaturgy of text by Roi Gal-Or & Karmit Evenzur, The Creative Lab Residency, The School of Storytelling, Emerson College, UK, 2022.
Written by Lynn Frances Preston
Performed by Lynn Frances Preston
Directed by Kasia Pudlo
Lighting by Artie Hotchkies
Production support & inspiration by Andi Snelling
Presented by Britt Plummer & Nick Phillips for the Migration Museum, Chapel & Yurt, Adelaide Fringe Festival 2023.
FIRST Project
- The Blazing Sun
