Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Odin’s Eye and the Art of Seeing
Alice Fernbank
Genre: Biography, Storytelling
Venue: Scottish Storytelling Centre
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Review
Alice Fernbank starts her performance by dropping us right into that moment she begins her treatment for a very rare cancer (7 in 1 million) in her left eye. Vividly she describes the customised chair in which she is sitting. A mask, that has been specifically formed for her face is fixed to a metal frame that holds her head firmly in place. She can’t move and relies on others to ferry her around in this customised wheelchair. Through her intense detailed narration we relive with her that first day at the therapy centre near Liverpool. The only hospital that offers eye proton therapy in the UK. We can sense Fernbank’s apprehension. The machine that is emitting that proton that should cure her is so large it takes the whole room next to the one she is sitting in. It is radiation, so before the potentially life-saving invisible bundle of energy is emitted an alarm sounds. Fernbank is told to ‘look at a red dot’. By doing this her eye is exactly in the right place for the proton to hit the tumor that is growing at the back of her eye. But, she sees something else: a purple light that reminds her of the aurora. She is fascinated by the colours and their inherent beauty. She tells her radiologist about the purple light. The kind young woman with beautiful blond hair that is tied up into a ponytail tells her that the physicist had told her that Fernbank’s treatment is at such an angle, she might see violet lights. The therapy team withheld the information so not to worry Fernbank in case she wouldn’t see light. Later that week when talking to four other patients with the same type of cancer they discover they all see lights, but as their cancers require a different angle for each, each sees another colour. Each is fascinated by their own unique light show.
Fernbank has to attend the same treatment for four days after a form of dress rehearsal on the Monday. Therefore she is required to stay in a hotel nearby and a dedicated driver picks her up, brings her to the hospital and takes her back to the hotel after her treatment. The driver is called Drew, the son of an eccentric aristocrat, who loved to drive his pony trap and kept a parrot in every room of his vast mansion. Drew himself lives on a barge with his dogs. He is the designated driver for all the ocular melanoma patients who undergo proton therapy. He has been sensitised to their needs and knows when to be chatty and when to be silent. Fernbank’s second day of treatment is different she feels subdued. Back at the hotel she goes straight to bed. The next day the proton machine can’t get started and so she meets Pearl, the patient before her, who is still waiting for her treatment. The experience of cancer and a treatment that will most likely cost both the sight in their afflicted eye, brings them together. In any other circumstance they wld have never connected. Pearl invites Fernbank to the eye patients’ meetup in the hotel that evening. It leads to a WhatsApp group that is a great support in the beginning and still sticks around. After five years, it has reduced to wishing each other Merry Christmas, but it is still there, should anyone need the others. Fernbank has been cancer free for five years and she was lucky the cancer didn’t spread. Her eyesight was damaged due to the radiation therapy, and it will decline more. She gave the sight in her left eye for her life.
Fernbank intertwines her biographical story with two legends from Norse Mythology. The first story is of Odin who gives his right eye to know everything that was, is and will come. With great intensity and poised arm movements, Fernbank takes us to the ash tree Yggdrasil and the land of Odin and his clan in the tree’s crown called Asgard. The tree lives from water out of three wells. One is guarded by Odin’s maternal uncle Mímir. Mímir’s well contains all knowledge that ever existed and whoever drinks from it, will obtain absolute knowledge. So the ash Yggdrasil that holds the nine worlds of Norse mythology drinks knowledge and that knowledge raises through the tree into the leaves that make the realm Asgard. There they tell all they know, which entices Odin to climb down via the rainbow bridge and persuade his uncle to let him drink. Odin has to undergo examinations and sacrifices his right eye for this privilege. During this whole narration Fernbank is rooted to the ground as if she was the world carrying ash tree. Her voice is hypnotic and calm. She draws us into a world that is from a different age and yet it feels so real. Her steady volume and clear, firm utterances are a siren song that fixate us to her lips.
The second story she tells is the Æsir-Vanir war. It all starts with a vision from a Vanir of Asgard. The Vanirs live in Vanahaimr another of the nine worlds and like Asgard inhabited by gods. Freya in disguise wants to find this place and fights herself through the branches of the tree to Asgard. There no one understands her and the Aesir she meets are hostile. The first is a group of young women with beautiful plaits, but they chase her away, so do the blacksmiths and when she tries to speak to the warriors of Valhalla, her powerful voice weakens them and they flee her. The Aesirs are unsettled by this woman so they follow her. Freya reaches an orchard with a pear tree with the juiciest and sweetest pears. Freya climbs high into the tree to get the best fruits. The Aesirs burn down the tree in an attempt to kill the Vanir goddess. She however is reborn from the ashes. The Aesirs try two more attempts of murder by burning and each time Freya raises again. This time her kin has had enough and the war between the two worlds starts that only ends with a hostage exchange and Mímir being decapitated.
Fernbank’s skill as a storyteller means that we hang at her every word, even when it is the unintelligible gibberish of the Vanir gods. Her fascial expression and the modulation make this section at times very funny with the audience giggling away in their seats. The blue, floor length dress she is wearing with her blond hair falling on her shoulders falls into place by the end of this story. Despite the theme of the afternoon and the quite violent stories as well as the seriousness of Fernbank’s own story, this is a blissfully entertaining evening. Fernbank’s very personal style as a storyteller makes her look strong even when talking about one of her most vulnerable times.
This was a revival of a project from 2019, when Fernbank’s experience was still quite fresh. Now, five years later she knows the therapy has worked and how much of her sight she has lost so far. She knows it will get worse, but she tells the story from a place of certainty that brings an authoritative stillness to the tale. I enjoyed how Fernbank told her story and while I greatly enjoyed the Norse legends, I would have liked to hear more of her own story. Maybe it is time to fund a sequel to this where we could learn more about the last five years.
