In this one-man storytelling event, Michael Burdett narrates his surprising encounter with a lost recording of 60s/70s folk singer Nick Drake. He takes this recording on a wonderful adventure around Great Britain – visiting each county while stopping strangers to listen to it and picturing their reactions.
Many strangers had anecdotes and experiences that they felt truly resonated with the music, even those that have never heard Nick Drake before nor usually enjoyed the folk genre. Nevertheless, many of them narrated these experiences to Burdett, opening their deep inner emotions to him and creating a beautiful, albeit brief, human connection. In this way, Burdett vividly illustrates the power music can have in people’s lives in surfacing past experiences and memories, and the poetic brilliance of sharing this with others, fostering true connection.
Although Burdett shared his accidental encounters with a few famous people, he also described the lovely yet absurd coincidences he experienced on his journey, in meeting various people that knew Nick Drake personally, and people that even knew each other. Many of them shared stories that constructed a different version of Nick Drake than the one told by mainstream media, and Burdett ensured to share this with us. Nick Drake was not just a melancholy, distressed individual, but someone also funny, friendly, brave; distinctly human. This is not a show about glorifying the legend of Nick Drake, but encouraging us to think about him, and everyone, as an ordinary individual, with ordinary lives that at close inspection, is quietly extraordinary.
Heartfelt and at times affectionately funny, Burdett is a fantastic narrator that creates an amusing and tender story about real people living real lives. Although perhaps there is nothing specifically phenomenal about this performance, that is exactly its grounded strength; in showing the beauty in everyone’s ordinary lives and how intertwined they are, bringing faith back to humankind.
Strange Face: Adventures with a Lost Nick Drake Recording… The Story Continues is running until 31 August at 10 Dome at Pleasance Dome. Buy tickets here.
Image by Michael Burdett, provided for press use.
