Creative Storytelling with Adults at Risk/Creative Play and Drama with Adults at Risk

Creative Storytelling with Adults at Risk Jennings s Oxford: Speechmark Publishing Ltd (2005) 202pp A4 wire-o-bound ISBN 0 86388 534 9 Price ??2995 and Creative Play and Drama with Adults at Risk Jennings s Oxford: Speechmark Publishing Ltd (2005) 201pp A4 wire-o-bound ISBN 0 86388 535 7 Price ??2995

It is difficult to make faculty of perception of these two books. While they are each badged as 'a Speechmark therapy resource' this appears imprecise as neither work considers how the resources or stock of ideas not absented might be deployed. It is propos that the 'adults at risk' of the two titles include, 'people with mental ill health... race with learning difficulties... however stern the learning impairment... people with social struggles' (A, p1) '...unwell groups' (A, p4) 'people with addictions... individuals and families with behaviour difficulties... individuals in forensic settings' (B p29) as well as those attending 'centre for race with multiple disabilities' (B, p30) However, one as well as the other books contain very prescriptive suggestions that appear to be designed for nation with sophisticated interpretive and expressive skills. While the couple texts employ drawings, not all of these are sufficiently expressive and nuanced to either expand the meaning of the stories or facilitate the tasks described in the (photocopiable) 'story sheets' and 'work sheets.' the one and the other texts rely heavily on the author's possess publications, which make up a third of the respects in each.

Most of us are engaged by the agency of stories and this is just single rationale for the text of Creative Storytelling with Adults at Risk. on the contrary it is a busy true copy containing such undeveloped listings of suggestions as 'Just dance your way from one side the story feeling carefree and light...' (p32) and 'Create a clump picture of the adventures of Odysseus' (p100) Coupl with like digressions as 'Jung's emphasis upon the importance of mandalas has shaped my have thinking, even though I think my use of them contrasts with his' (p1) and 'the intricacies and disputes concerning the Gregorian and Julian calendars do not belong to us here' (p104), the concentration and staying power of readers is required.

Broadly, the true copy outlines a template: a summary of a story, 'Ideas before the storytelling,' the filled story, 'Ideas after the storytelling' and a station of story sheets, most of which are suggestions for writing tasks. Romulus and Remus, Rhiannon, St Peter the Marys and Sara, Odysseus, Cora, St Anthony, King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, King Midas, Hesperides, Alcina, Pantalone, Hephaestus, Prometheus, Pandora and Merlene are the lead dramatis personae. Their stories originate from an oral tradition in which accounts of moral authority hit against with feats of strength, have affection for jealousy, rivalry and nurtured grant with reluctances in which animals are not what they present the appearance Typically, they are interspersed with receptacleed quotations from Shakespeare's plays. Occasionally, the author boxe her be in possession of ideas eg, 'Stay with the chaos and the meaning will emerge' (p66) Does 'creative storytelling' arise from the use of these stories and extensive lists of suggestions? I cannot say. Neither can I report what impact storytelling has upon adults at risk. Although the jacket blurb promises 'clear guidelines for practitioners... to have feeling confident in using stories' guidelines are not readily identifiable, unles they are the pre- and post-story listings of ideas.

The true copy of Creative Play and Drama with Adults at Risk be likes its companion volume. The influence of Shakespeare is explicit as extensive quotations from his plays are threaded throughout; King Midas and Odysseus secure another look-in; and the receptacleed texts include, inter alia, the observations of the author as well as the praise of a satisfied customer. It is difficult to abstract from (i) the remarkable claims (eg 'These activities are important for adults because they... integrate family into their own heritage of art and agriculture maximise people's learning potential... contribute to improvement of memory... integrate difference at all levels' p30-31; and 'Rather like the aged saying "An apple a day retains the doctor away," we could say to ourselves that "Playing each day detains madness at bay!"' (p159) and (ii) Worksheet exercises, the essential part of the impetus for writing, the theoretical or evidence base for her claims.

Stories, poesy plays, images, dance and music are passports with the capacity to ferry us from individual place to others. Somehow this fact is missing in the clutter of quirky detail and opinion of 400 pages. Were the author to moderate down, to become reticent about sharing confidences, to describe by what means some stories and plays are experienced by dint of individuals and groups, to state what and in what manner concessions may be made to the usual demands of the form, and to draw from the first someone narratives of vulnerable adults, for example, I would not have the constant faculty of perception that the concerns of the couple texts are falling short.

Reviewed by means of Margaret Flynn

Senior Lecturer Sheffield University

Copyright Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd May 2006

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