A veritable virtuoso with verbs, a natural with nuanced nouns, an avalanche of active adjectives and adverbs: Greg North took Binalong by storm over the weekend with his unique mix of bush poetry and acting skills that have delighted audiences all over Australia.
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First stop was the Mechanics Institute on Saturday night, where a good crowd gathered despite the weather and Binalong’s crowded social calendar over the weekend.
Several local folk were seen to literally wipe tears of laughter from their eyes as character after character appeared on stage. The cast ranged from Fracking Phillip Fricker to a tradie, a chap tangled up in sticky tape to a young yobo, and of course all the assorted individuals - each with their own hat and accent - that make up one of Australia’s best-loved poems, Banjo Paterson’s The Man From Snowy River.
In between the laughter there were also more reflective moments: Gundungurra Man won especially loud applause.
President of Binalong Arts Group Inc, Robyn Sykes, declared the event "an amazing night".
“I love being part of an event where so many people so obviously enjoyed themselves,” she said.
“The whole night was fantastic.”
Sunday afternoon saw the man-of-many-hats at the Black Swan Gallery and Wine Bar as part of Binalong’s bimonthly open mic poetry event. A dozen or so poets took their turn at the microphone before Gregory North stepped up after the coffee break and presented a more traditional bracket of poems than his offering the previous night. Over 40 people attended, including regular performer John Peel from Tumut, who introduced the reason he missed the May event: 10-week-old Geoffrey Peel.
All in all it was a wonderful weekend of words, coordinated by Binalong Arts Group Inc.
