The White Horse at Uffington is an inspiration for Rhiannon Unbridled

Rhiannon Unbridled at the Old Fire Station Oxford on Tuesday 25 April. Review by Jon Lewis

The White Horse at Uffington is an inspiration for Rhiannon Unbridled, the first theatrical production from storyteller and member of the folk trio Kismet, Jackie Singer. It concerns a Welsh heroine from the Mabinogion, the collection of early prose stories written in Welsh in 1382 found in The Red Book of Hergest, a tome owned by Jesus College Oxford where Singer studied.

Over the course of an hour, Singer, directed by Improbable artist Matilda Leyser, weaves together two narratives, one of Rhiannon, and the other of Singer’s own youth and early lovers, switching from one story to the other effortlessly. Singer’s experience in storytelling means she knows how to grip her audience, leaving scenes on a cliffhanger, whilst her years with Kismet has encouraged her to infuse the story with acoustic folk songs. All this is wonderful enough, but there are additional magical moments when she holds up simple, quite beautiful shadow puppets (Singer has worked with Oxford puppet-meister Stephen Mottram) framed within the contours of a tambourine.

Rhiannon, who rides a shining white horse, is depicted in these shadow puppets, accompanied by the outline of a black crow. In Singer’s interpretation, Rhiannon is striving to create her own agency as a woman, battling against the structures of paternalistic and other male influences

The story of Rhiannon is meaningful to Singer because it resonates so strongly with her lived experiences. Rhiannon, who rides a shining white horse, is depicted in these shadow puppets, accompanied by the outline of a black crow. In Singer’s interpretation, Rhiannon is striving to create her own agency as a woman, battling against the structures of paternalistic and other male influences. Her father wants her to marry Gwawl, a man who drones on, boring her. She wants to marry the princely Pwyll and seeks him out on Beltane, the first of May, presenting herself at his court as a reward, but as no easy catch. It takes three days for Pwyll’s messenger to find her as she rides her magic white horse over the hills.

True love does not run smoothly for Rhiannon or for Singer whose anger at abusive men erupts in her description of the scold’s bridle, a torture tool designed to render a woman silent. The horse is a symbol of freedom for both women, the fictional heroine and Singer running free over the hills to the song of liberty.