Storyteller Mike Burns returns to Métis-sur-Mer with “An evening of traditional Irish storytelling, like in our own kitchen long ago.” The event is part of the Rendez-vous des Grandes Gueules, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
Enjoy this interview with the performer, and we hope you’ll join us for his event on Friday, October 9th at Espace Métis.
HLSL: Can you tell us a little about what audiences will see – or hear – at your show in Espace Métis on October 9?
Burns: I never know for sure what I will tell but there are always stories that are whispering “Tell me! Tell me!” Of the hundreds of stories in my backpack, we can be sure of an evening of traditional Irish stories, some funny, some sad, some marvellous or magical. A journey to my homeland on the wings of words.
HLSL: This isn`t your first visit to Bas-St-Laurent. What do you like about the region? Have you noticed any changes over the years?
Burns: Nor is it my second or my third. I suppose I have been coming for nigh on thirty years and it always gladdens my heart to see old friends and new.
Growing up in “the next parish to America” meant that boats and the Atlantic and fishing were always part of our lives, much in common with many people of the Bas-St-Laurent and Gaspésie.
HLSL: A little more about your background: what brought you from Ireland to Quebec?
Burns: Not what but who – a French-Canadian woman I fell in love with in London. She never told me “Qui prend marie prend pays”
HLSL: Where did storytelling start for you? What are some of your favourite performances?
Burns: Storytelling was part of my childhood – I never saw a television until I was 14 years old.
Bruno de La Salle performing the Odyssey, Jihad Darwish telling his Middle Eastern tales, Ben Haggarty telling Gilgamesh.
If you mean my own performances, telling the story of the Rideau Canal, “My Grief On The Sea” to 300 descendants of the survivors in Ottawa 20 years ago remains particularly memorable.
HLSL: Can you share a short story with us, for these times?
Burns: In writing?
You’re joking!
I never write any of my stories and any that have been written were transcribed by somebody else.
