Ghostly voices came strangely to me from out of the graves in an old country churchyard...
OK not really all that ghostly, as it was a bright sunny afternoon and not at all eerie or mysterious because the voices came from actors at a most unusual theatrical performance.
The church was Christ Church in the middle of Longford and the graveyard clusters around the beautiful little stone church built in the 1800s - the village of Longford has, over the yers, gradually grown to surround the church.
The theatrical performance by Launceston's Mudlark Theatre was actually right in amongst the gravestones, some very old and worn and tilting every which way. It was an enactment of the lives of some of the early convicts buried there. Their lives have been carefully researched and their stories are authentic and highly dramatic.
The story I specially liked best was about a convict woman who had worked for her freedom, married and eventually bore her husband no less than fifteen children. After she died (probably of exhaustion!) he re-married and produced a further eleven children - such unimaginable numbers and telling us of such hard lives.
These stories have been digitised and you can buy the CD in the form of an Audio Companion which, along with two fascinating stories inludes original compositions by guitarist Chris Jacobson and music from The Chordwainers played on unique leather instruments.
The CD can also accompany the self-guided walking brochure of Longford's Christ Church graveyard, Voices from the Graves, which reveals the rich and intriguing stories if 14 people who are buried there, and also the booklet, In Heaven as it is on Earth, telling even more stories.
If you are interested, visit the Heritage Highway website at www.heritagehighway.com.au/news/13125492
I've heard that CD...it's gorgeous.
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