A Love Like Salt (Mold)

From childhood we have all loved a good old yarn. If that is still the case storytellers and gripping tales to lure you into a world of make believe don’t come better than The Devil’s Violin Company. The master weaver of tales is Daniel Morden helped by three musicians/singers in this evening of enchantment.

The company transports you from an unprepossessing room into another world with just words,  music, some singing and a load of talent. There are no sets, no costumes or props but within minutes Daniel, the master storyteller has you in the palm of his hand. With subtlety and wry humour, with a raise of the eyebrow and a few theatrical gestures he brings alive beautiful palaces, dark and dangerous forests and about every emotion under the sun.

The entertainment takes some inspiration from the Knights of Camelot, Shakespeare’s King Lear and the French nobility asking the question “How much do you love me?” In the first of the stories Lear is cleverly linked with Cinderella in a moving tale of love and redemption.

The tales tell of kindness, cruelty, banishment, forgiveness and hope but most of all about true love. But there is nothing soppy here or ‘Once upon a time’. Pathos mixes with wry humour and the tension of the stories keep you in their grip.
Daniel Morden can certainly hold an audience spell bound thanks to his skill and he is delightfully supported by some wonderful musicians in Oliver Wilson-Dickson, Sarah Moody and Luke Carver Goss who link the stories, add drama to the tales and sometimes underscore the words with their stirring music.

Recommended for anyone over 12 it is an education for we men as we find out what women really want! The brochure promises a unique passionate and powerful performance and this show certainly delivers that. You may not be tucked into bed at the end of the stories but you will be contented and satisfied  from tales well told.

– Richard Woodward