Usually I tell mythic adventure stories during my trips down to Grendel’s Den in Cambridge. I hop in my car in New Hampshire and two hours later, I’m on busy Harvard Square, loading in the harp and guitars, greeting the crew for the evening and grabbing a coffee. Then it’s to the stage for tuning and a sound check. Before I know it, I’m performing tales of gods and monsters. Giants speak. Hammers fly. Dwarves chitter. Beasts roar.
It’s fun and the audience usually has a good time. They eat, they drink, and then they listen.
Happily, my Grendel’s Den show last month, Odin and Thor Battle the Frost Giants, was sold out, packed with nice people. Tables full of professorial-looking souls, others crowded with students and millennials, even a few young couples out on dates.
No kidding. Dinner and a story, I guess. I’m flattered at the thought.
Tomorrow night’s show, however, is one that those young, unmarried people out on that date together might really enjoy. Basically two long love stories, one from Japan and one from Arthurian England, this show takes place once a year for Valentine’s Day. Both tales have elements of magic, yes, but no monsters to speak of. No life or death battles. Just the wonder of male/female relationships in the face of the prime directive, and how things can go so very wrong if the trust isn’t there, and how things can go so very right when it is.
A few tickets remain.
WORLDS APART: Tales for Lovers
Grendel’s Den in Cambridge, MA
Sunday, Feb. 10 at 5 pm
TICKETS $15