This radio play, written by Lara, is set in Magic Corner in Port Meadow, a historic stopping point for boat-dwellers, and is about traditional herb-lore and itinerant canal life. It was one of four plays shortlisted for the Oxford Canal Radio Play competition, and you can listen to a reading of the play here:
“This play draws on the playwright’s experience of life on board a boat with her children and her love of growing and using herbs providing a device to describe herbs and their uses. Set in the days of a thriving canal trade, the central character is a young boy who talks about his life on the canal and running about on Port Meadow, conjuring up the freedom he feels. It’s bath time and he describes how his mother puts herbs into a tin bath (that was carried on board narrow boats) and fills it up with hot water. The play ends with them talking together about their lives.
Lara is an mother, traditional birth assistant, fire performer and writer. Having travelled and lived on the edges of society from 19 till 33 she learned many life skills such as wild plant recognition, herbal medicine, barefoot midwifery, spiritual healing, tantric meditation and personal responsibility.
In 2007 she and her children moored their boat at Walton Well Bridge allotment moorings to give the children a static base whilst they attended secondary school.The moorings had been created by John and Lowri Keyes based on a discovery by Green Councillor Sushila Dahl, that this part of Port Meadow was a piece of public land set aside for boaters in the ancient statutes of Oxford. Fully believing in people’s rights to travel and live freely Lara and her family have supported Walton Well bridge moorings to create more affordable living spaces in Oxford.
This story is written to remind all the people of Oxford about the existence of the Magic Corner and the wealth of herbs that are there for the health and enjoyment for all!”
http://www.oxfordcanalheritage.org/radio-plays
