ABSTRACT
The theatre, more tangibly than any other art, presents us with the past . . . In the theatre you never leave the present.
(Berger 2001: 548)
We are a storytelling species, but the telling of stories is not simply narrative, it has drama too. People telling stories in family meetings have an audience. They do not quite know what they are going to say, so the play is improvised and the audience is also the cast. A father gives an account of a train journey across Britain he took alone at the age of 7. His son is listening, but only just, as he is 3 years old and very overactive. Part of its drama was created by my expression of amazement that he could have travelled so far alone. ‘How did you get across London?’ I asked incredulously.
