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

Journal of Adult Protection, The, May 2006 by Flynn, Margaret

Creative Storytelling with Adults at Risk Jennings S Oxford: Speechmark Publishing Ltd (2005) 202pp, A4 wire-o-bound ISBN 0 86388 534 9 Price £29.95 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 £29.95

It is difficult to make sense of these two books. While they are each badged as 'a Speechmark therapy resource' this appears imprecise as neither book considers how the resources or stock of ideas presented might be deployed. It is proposed that the 'adults at risk' of both titles include, 'people with mental ill health... people with learning difficulties... however severe 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 'centres for people with multiple disabilities' (B, p30). However, both books contain very prescriptive suggestions that appear to be designed for people with sophisticated interpretive and expressive skills. While both 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.' Both texts rely heavily on the author's own publications, which make up a third of the references in each.

Most of us are engaged by stories and this is just one rationale for the text of Creative Storytelling with Adults at Risk. But it is a busy text containing such undeveloped listings of suggestions as 'Just dance your way through the story feeling carefree and light...' (p32) and 'Create a group picture of the adventures of Odysseus' (p100). Coupled with such digressions as 'Jung's emphasis on the importance of mandalas has shaped my own 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 concern us here' (p104), the concentration and staying power of readers is required.

Broadly, the text outlines a template: a summary of a story, 'Ideas before the storytelling,' the full story, 'Ideas after the storytelling' and a set 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 jostle with feats of strength, love, jealousy, rivalry and nurtured grudges, in which animals are not what they seem. Typically, they are interspersed with boxed quotations from Shakespeare's plays. Occasionally, the author boxes her own 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 on adults at risk. Although the jacket blurb promises 'clear guidelines for practitioners... to feel confident in using stories' guidelines are not readily identifiable, unless they are the pre- and post-story listings of ideas.

The text of Creative Play and Drama with Adults at Risk resembles its companion volume. The influence of Shakespeare is explicit as extensive quotations from his plays are threaded throughout; King Midas and Odysseus get another look-in; and the boxed 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 people into their own heritage of art and culture... maximise people's learning potential... contribute to improvement of memory... integrate difference at all levels' p30-31; and 'Rather like the old saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," we could say to ourselves that "Playing each day keeps madness at bay!"' (p159) and (ii) Worksheet exercises, the essence of the impetus for writing, the theoretical or evidence base for her claims.

Stories, poetry, plays, images, dance and music are passports with the capacity to ferry us from one place to others. Somehow this fact is lost in the clutter of quirky detail and opinion of 400 pages. Were the author to slow down, to become reticent about sharing confidences, to describe how some stories and plays are experienced by individuals and groups, to state what and how concessions may be made to the usual demands of the form, and to draw from the first person narratives of vulnerable adults, for example, I would not have the constant sense that the concerns of both texts are falling short.

Reviewed by Margaret Flynn

Senior Lecturer, Sheffield University