As To a Story They Told

The Anderson Gallery was hosting a happy hour with some pretty fabulous enticements: overhead projectors and tales of sexuality.

Of course, they didn't state it that way on the invitation page. Oh, no, they just said to come out for an encore performance of "Nonesuch Tales of Ardea Herodias," the best in show winner from this past year's InLight down on the Canal Walk.

Since I'd only seen their performance for a short time that night, I was eager to see more of the story of Shockoe Bottom, with vignettes about the great blue heron, a fisherman's ride on a sturgeon in the James River and, perhaps most fascinating of all, a bit of James Branch Cabell's comic fantasy novel, "Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice."

I arrived early, got a seat and chatted with the gallery director, who inquired, "Do you go out every night?" It wasn't even a rhetorical question.

I never know what I might see or hear when I'm out, so yes, I do.

Tonight, Laurids Sonne and Rachel Cohn manned the projectors while Michael Ashley (whom I of course know from his restaurant job) provided the music as we watched the stories unfold on the gallery wall.

The Danish Laurids began by turning a roll of transparencies across the screen to set the scene showing the ocean and slave boats before Rachel put on transparencies of blue water and blue herons flying over on her projector.

As a bonus, during this part I learned that a colony of herons is called a heronry. That's not quite as cool as a murder of crows, but close.

Next came scenes of a man fishing with Michael making burbling sounds of water until the man got hold of the sturgeon and began riding it.

The final section was taken from chapter 22 of Cabell's 1919 book, entitled "As to a veil they broke," and at this point, we had no clue as to what to expect.

Beautiful hand painted images of figures walking through green caverns with yellow marble soon gave way to a much juicier story.

What we got was Jurgen being stroked by women's tongues, fingernails and nipples.

What we got was the love god of Dahomey and his phallic symbol.

What we got was Jurgen's pursuit of curious pleasures and his sexual adventures with the queen.

It had to be the best story ever presented on transparencies and an overhead projector.

If the kids in the AV club in junior high had seen this stuff, their heads would have exploded.

What we experienced was a unique and beautifully evoked fantasy tale by a Richmonder so prominent his name is on buildings, translated to a light show by three talented artists using an old school device with minimal media interference to tell a century old story visually and sonically.

With the things I end up experiencing at happy hours, why on earth would I stay home at night?