The Sailors Purse is a storytelling piece. The whole aim is to drag the audience into a world created by your words.
The story is of a Sailor who sailed the seas in the early 1800's. Young William Harte was a renowned gambler who always won the wager. That is, as long as he carried two small and rather peculiar looking dice. He would only hint darkly as where he had obtained these fated items, but they were undoubtedly the source of his good fortune. So when a dark stranger appeared on the dock, it was with some relish that our young hero entered into a wager, confident that his luck would hold out. However, this was not to be , as this game would end with him losing all, all that he carried, all that he owned, his fortune, his home, and as the stakes were raised; his young pregnant wife, his body and his soul. For The Stranger had come to claim his own.
The storyteller engages his audience in a piece of theatre of the imagination, using the props to re-enact the events. A sensitive person, who we call 'the medium' is drawn from the crowd, who attempts to contact the soul of the fated sailor and travel back in time to see event though his eyes and to play the final game he played.
The medium is handed a small peculiar draw-string purse. She holds it on the palm of her hand. This will enable her to make contact with the young sailor in a manner that is both profound and ultimately chilling.
The performer lays the small illustrations down from an old 'tobacco book' to illustrate the sequence of events, the 'medium' lays down random shuffled pages from a second tobacco book, which give the emotional content of the story and magically reveal some of it's symbolic content.
The medium 'sees' William and describes him in detail, focusing on the design of a small tattoo on his chest. She sees him sitting opposite the terrifying dark creature who has come to take his soul.
Six objects are taken out from the purse and laid out between the performer and the medium; the final game of 'hi-chance - low-chance' is rein-acted. A single shell remains, it symbolises the security of home, and (on a higher level) the 'shell' which is home to William's doomed soul - this is the final prize that The Stranger is to take.
There is one more thing in the purse; a small scroll. It is opened and it is seem that the result of this wager was long foretold and the doomed sailor was merely re-enacting his dark destiny.
There is one more thing, one final chilling revelation - one that I guarantee will make the audiences flesh crawl. Something held in the hand of the terrified medium!
I really do not exaggerate when I say that you will never have experienced a magical effect such as this one. It takes the ideas of parlour performance to a whole new level. It will also take your performance to a whole new level too. These are not false claims.
DOWNLOAD THE TALE OF THE SAILORS PURSE HERE
VERY LIMITED STOCK - THESE ARE THE LAST OF THE ORIGINAL SAILORS PURSES.