Friends of the Haliburton County Public Library (HCPL) guest speaker RH Thomson is adamant he is not a writer.
The visiting actor and author will be at the Haliburton Legion Nov. 24 as part of HCPL’s 16th annual library fundraiser.
Perhaps best known by some for his roles in Road to Avonlea and Anne with an E, the author of By the Ghost Light: Wars, Memory and Families, and The Lost Boys tells The Highlander, “I’m not a writer… I’m a storyteller.”
In the process of penning Ghost Light, Thomson said he realized, “I don’t have any literary templates for this. Yeah, I read books but I’m not a writer. So, the only templates for storytelling I have are theatre. I know a lot about that because I’ve done it for 50 years.”
He explains that in his storytelling process, “I’m thinking theatrically as I tell the story onstage. I think that’s what started to appear for me, instead of saying ‘what great nonfiction book shall I mirror?”
He admits he didn’t do well in English literature. “But how stories are told in theatres is in my bones, and you can tell them well, and you can engage people, or you can bore them, or leave them confused. Those are the things running me through the book.”
Thomson said he uses metaphor.
“My family is offstage in this book as I’m writing it. I know in the wings around me they are standing there and they’re watching me because I’m talking about them. And I invite some of them onstage into the book and I don’t want others to come into the book. And this one character, Great Aunt Isabelle, she says, ‘no, I’m going to appear. I know you don’t want me to appear, but I’m going to appear’ so it gives me a way to find a dynamic to talk about them respectfully because I don’t want to put words in their mouths, but they have to be seen and tell their stories.”
Speaking to his 50 years of acting in theatre, TV, and movies, Thomson says, “if you’re an actor and haven’t been on TV in a year, you’re just gone from people’s (minds).”
Having said that, he adds, “I have people come up to me and say I saw you in Hamlet in 1986, and they tell me about the show and how it’s changed them.”
He shares an anecdote of an American political figure who is a big fan of Ticket to Heaven, a 1981 Canadian drama about a man who is recruited into a religious cult and his life in the group. Thomson played a character named Linc Strunc.
The politician was a big fan who watched the movie regularly. He asked Thomson to read a script – in character – for his Boston lawyer friend’s birthday.
“This is off the deep end,” Thomson says with a chuckle. “It does lead to very strange places.”
He’s reminded it’s leading to Haliburton County this Sunday, and Thomson says, “it’s good that it did.
“I have been [up that way]. I jump around a lot, whether I’m jumping around to New Brunswick, or your neck of the woods, or Winnipeg… the jobs take you many, many places, which is neat. I love it. It’s always somewhere different, always a different place, and it’s always a different perspective – getting to know another part of Ontario or Canada or whatever.”
He said one thread he usually speaks about is, “who is the storyteller in each family? Are you the storyteller in your family? And who is keeping the stories. If it isn’t you, who is?
“And then we talk a bit about story, and how it is a very odd and unique form of memory.” He added storytelling can have an agenda, and can sometimes trap or lead you somewhere.
For example, he said, “different cultures tell war stories very, very differently. And we would be unwise to ignore that because we are in the middle of at least two wars… not us personally, but watching them played out… Canadians in both Gaza and Ukraine.”
The event begins at 1 p.m. with a silent auction/refreshments; Thomson speaks at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 cash or cheque only. Tickets may be purchased at The Minden Library Book Nook, the first and third Fridays of the month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or by contacting Pat Brezina 705-286-1958, patbrezina@hotmail.com or Sue Sisson at 705-286-2000, sedgeone@gmail.com.
