Please, open up your mind to this singular, engaging world of, The Man Who Planted Trees. Dive head first into this festival of creative imagination that greens a pathway through this allegorical tale of hope, determination and renewal. This inspiring short story has been chosen to stir up, invigorate and enliven the creative juices of the people of Calderdale, in this year of CultureDale – a year long celebration of the cultural richness of the Dale.
There is no better place to explore this masterpiece of nature writing, than in the Calder Valley and in the culture that is the fabric that binds it all together and gives it a life and identity. The power of the individual to make changes in this world for the better, lies within the tree lined valley sides of Calderdale. This story of hope, survival and selflessness is afable for modern times.
Hebden Bridge Arts is one of Calderdale’s eleven key commissions working with local communities, connecting up people to place; bringing together a rich cross section of Calderdale talent, enthusiasm and creativity through a series of community creative days, stretching across the valley from Rastrick to Todmorden. Workshops were open to anyone with an interest in nature, art, creative writing or just wanting to engage with other people in this vibrant valley community. Nature and humans are both seeded into this steep valley landscape, scoured by the River Calder; it’s an enclosed, twist and turn of a valley, where place defines the person. This mutually beneficial relationship has created a cocoon of creativity, industry and a connection to the land.
This new adaptation of The Man Who Planted Trees, is the culmination of this year’s project by Hebden Bridge Arts. It has brought together a whole raft of people, including professional actors, writers, puppet and mask makers; a community choir and a team of young people aged between nine and sixteen: each pouring in their talent, enthusiasm, a love of nature and the creative arts into a cauldron of creativity, which the alchemy of the arts then brought to life in a magical re-telling of this story for the stage.
This wonderful, arresting short story engrosses the imagination. It was written by Jean Giono, in the 1950’s, a French writer who wrote works of fiction, mostly set in the Provence region of France. This story was set in the first part of the 20th century. This quintessential tale of one man’s determination to make a change has been echoed down the generations in the real world, where individuals who have had the steel of character, the strength of will and firmness of purpose have brought about a reshaping, a rebuilding and a renewal of parts of our natural world.
Documented stories of extraordinary, resilient individuals who have taken it upon themselves to make a difference, exemplifies the power of the individual to bring about change. Antonio Vicente bought a piece of land in Sao Paulo state and like Elzéard Bouffier in the fictional story, has over 40 years replanted thousands of trees on his 31 hectare, mountain range property. The wildlife have returned and water is in plentiful supply. Since 1979, Javid Payeng has dedicated his life to planting trees on a river island in India. The ecosystem has been restored, nature is once again in balance. A flourishing, 1360 acres of forest reigns supreme – a stable home in which flora and fauna thrive and blossom.
Closer to home in the Calder Valley, flows the River Calder and after torrential downfalls can turn into a beast of a wreaking ball; crashing down the valley, through Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Sowerby Bridge and beyond, leaving a trail of devastation in it’s wake. Boxing Day 2015, saw the valley ravaged by unprecedented flooding, leaving behind traumatised communities. No finer connection is to be made than between The Man Who Planted Trees and the resilient residents of Calderdale who through community run projects help to raise awareness of climate change and flooding.
One such resident, Dongria Kondh founded Treesponsibility in the 1990s, who then went on to help launch a 25 year project to reforest the Calder Valley. This inspirational environmental activist in the North of England was a force of nature who dedicated herself to making a positive change to people’s attitude towards the natural world. She was committed to sharing a powerful truth about the climate emergency and the need for natural flood management in the Calder Valley. Treesponsibility, with the aid of local communities, went on to plant over half a million trees in the valley, thus helping to stem the turbulent flow of water into the River Calder.
Elzeard Buffier and Dongria Kondh, fictional and factual - side by side are both environmental pioneers who shared a powerful narrative around the climate crisis. Hebden Bridge Arts presented an environmentally, themed community project inspired by Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees, which culminated in an amazing stage adaptation of the story. The real world and the imagined world blended and folded into one, the green footprints of which tread from story to stage and stomp through the very essence of our internal and external world, which gives us a sense of connection to our place in the landscape.
Art can be transformative and empowering, puncturing that protective coat we
wear day to day and can leave behind a small act of defiance that may change the
world.
Amanda Dalton, poet and playwright, who lives in Hebden Bridge first came across The Man Who Planted Trees whilst developing a project with trainee primary school teachers twenty years ago. Through the mediums of drama, art and science, the story gave up it’s secrets and laid bare it’s environmental credentials and human message, of the power of the individual to make a change. Then, during a discussion with Hebden Bridge Art’s Creative Producer, Rebekah Fozard about this year’s key commission for CultureDale,the story returned to Amanda’s consciousness. It seemed the perfect text to incorporate all the different facets of the creative plan; to meld together professional artists and community groups under an environmental umbrella of the climate emergency, with the prospect of translating it to a stage performance.
This brand new re-telling of the much loved fable was created for a modern audience in the tree lined valley of Calderdale. Aimed at a family audience, the show was visually stimulating, with puppets, masks and mechanicals enchanting the onlookers and creatinga spellbinding spectacle to entrance the imagination of the watchers. The Hebden Bridge stage backdrop was a valley of interlocking spurs not unlike the valley of Calderdale. Amanda Dalton collaborated with Alison Duddle who was the designer, lead puppet and mask maker and puppet director to create a magical, hypnotic performance that beguiled the crowd.
The Man Who Planted Trees is a book for all to read, this masterwork of nature writing is a narrative canticle to the living world; it’s a beacon of hope showing a way forwards in a time of irrepressible changes: it’s how small acts make a difference. In the book, Elzéard Bouffier is a lone shepherd in a barren landscape who relentlessly plants hundreds of acorns as he walks through the wilderness - silent solitary work over the decades. A green man of flint sharpness cutting through an empty landscape, greening it in his wake – a young forest spreading slowly across the valley.
Hebden Bridge’s Theatre piece spoke to a 21 st century audience, the storyteller being a young, disillusioned, disenchanted woman called Jaygee, who finds herself alone and lost in a barren, sterile landscape. She encounters a solitary figure planting acorns one by one and this chance meeting unfolds the story of Jaygee and The Man Who Planted Trees. Over the years, her personal journey is connected and influenced by this planter of acorns. She is transformed from confused teenager to a strong, resourceful woman. This once upon a time fictional valley was implanted into the creative landscape of CultureDale, a river valley with exceptional people who share a connected vision and wisdom to help secure a sustainable future for Calderdale.
Puppets helped tell the story of The Man Who Planted Trees, they breathed life and fun into the performance. It gave the audience an opportunity to interact and communicate with the characters portrayed. Puppetry occurs in almost all human societies; used for entertainment, celebrations of seasonal traditions and festivals and the retelling of myths and legends. Puppets represent imagination, we were all children once and our childhood experiences of fantasy, make-believe, fairy tales and passed-on family stories are imprinted in our memories. What we experience as children never leaves us.
The Man Who Planted Trees is an allegorical story, a metaphor for hope, survival and selflessness. The puppets enchanted the audience, left them with an impression to walk away with. The puppets, the stage set, mechanicals and cast spread a magical shadow over the children and adults alike, during the performance. Imagination and make-believe were let loose and swam into the minds of the onlookers. Story telling is alive and well; we tell and re-tell stories about our way of life, customs, history, habits and values. It’s what glues the fabric of culture together, it’s what and who we are.
Environmental and climate change themes run through The Man Who Planted Trees; a clarion call story that delivers up the re-birth of a landscape, created by the stoic will and determination to seed the earth for the future and re-wild our imagination: encourage, motivate and spin us on to individual acts of rooting ourselves into the earth and becoming part of the rich fabric of nature.
Einstein said to look deep into nature and you will understand everything better: looking deep into this story and performance you may find a place where a thought might grow and change the world.
A diverse range of artworks by established, emerging and amateur local artists and creative writers, produced stunning pieces of original work in response to The Man Who Planted Trees project, which also embraced the artists’ own personal journeys through the pandemic and their re- engagement with the natural world during that difficult time. These artists dug deep into their own experiences and using their imagination, filled the walls and floors of three exhibition rooms in Calderdale with their creative adventures. One such exhibition space is the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge where ten years ago the River Calder, swollen on the gorge of rainfall, engulfed this part of the town, overwhelming the Club with washed down water from the valley sides. Water damage can still be seen alongside the artwork that decorates the walls of the Trades Club. It seems an appropriate venue to explore Giono’s story and the wider issues of environmental renewal, individual acts of artistic endeavours and the climate emergency: these visible marks of nature and art hang side by side, a reminder of the inextricable, adamantine bonds that hold us together in harmony with the savage beauty of the natural world.
On the ground floor of the Trades Club is a painted forest scene overlaying some of the newly laid flags; a floor that was scoured out during the inundation, leaving behind a ransacked room, scraped and gored by the power of nature. This colourful painting is a symbol of regrowth, rebuilding and rebirth. From An Acorn Grows - sixty seven acorns were made at a community workshop, inspired by the illustrations from The Man Who Planted Trees. The acorns are made from iron-rich wild clay from Mytholmroyd in the Calder Valley. Hopes Legacy - a pen and ink act of hope for the future, leaving a mark for those who may tread this way and see the love and labour from the past. It’s for those people who tread in our footprints that we need to seed the earth on our journey, with a deeper connection to the land - a spiritual re-connection to the earth, to leave the world a better place than we found it. Art tests the boundaries of what we see and what we relate to.
A society grows great when old men plant trees the shade of which
they know they
will never sit in
Plant trees where they are needed; plant them in the right place at the right time and for the right reason. ‘And so, with great care he planted his hundred acorns’ Elzéard Bouffier, a humble shepherd leaves a visible mark on the earth. Hebden Bridge Arts, the puppet and mask makers; the artists, actors and singers and the audiences shared a collective experience. Let us each be a collaborator who participates in a common, shared gesture of our time and plant for the future.
The air between the trees is the cleanest, purest and untainted of all,
sow the seeds so others may breath safely in the future
The force of the River Calder to disrupt is met with equal force from the grit and determination of the people of Calderdale to plant those acorns, construct those leaky dams; use the power of art to re-wild our imaginations and re–wire our connection to nature and lean into the unknown and kiss the ground with our love. The Man Who Planted Trees is a book I would give away to people that I admire and like. This book shivers with the rhythms of nature and resonates with our connectedness to our planet. Trees are monuments to magical thinking. These carbon sequestering giants gifts us every breath we take.
