Salon Special Event
Gillian Poulain & Jyll Bradley
‘Secrets of a happy home’
September 19th 2003 @ 8pm.

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Flower Arranger Gillian Poulain has enjoyed fifty happy years of marriage
(as well as having five children and a career…) In our burnt-out age of divorce, stress and multi-tasking she shared the wit and wisdom behind her happy home-life – through the creation of stunning flower arrangements made specially for Home. Interpreting the theme Secrets of a Happy Home Gillian, through a performance mix of spoken story and dextrous flower skill, created six floral works each telling a story from her home and introducing us to the drama of flowers and floral demonstration – a theatre rich in metaphor.
During her performance she also gave basic tips on choosing and arranging flowers for the home. After the demonstration the floral pieces were installed around the house - Home’s challenging artworks and spaces providing the perfect back-drop for debate on 21st century home-making. So whether you’re in search of lifetime contentment or advice on stemming ‘gerbera droop’ in your Borough loft, this evening was for you.

Secrets of a Happy Home was the opening evening of Fragrant a two week long event exploring the staging of self through the performance and metaphor of flower arranging. Fragrant was conceived and curated by Jyll Bradley in collaboration with The National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies and is produced by bga. Fragrant is funded by Arts Council, London.

Gillian Poulain ran a kindergarten for many years, but retired to pursue her life-long passion for flowers. She is an Area Demonstrator for the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies and has two and a half allotments where she grows foliage for Floral Demonstrations. She arranged her first flower aged two, when she placed a dandelion in a jam-jar.

Jyll Bradley is an Artist and Writer for theatre, radio and gallery. Her award-winning work for Radio 4 includes the original drama Filet de Sole Veronique and Before Beeton – The Eliza Acton Story which explored plagiarism between women cookery writers and featured Delia Smith and Clarissa
Dixon-Wright. Her recent R4 Woman’s Hour gardening comedy series Just Plain Gardening starred Celia Imrie and Coronation Street’s Julie Hesmondhalgh. Jyll has made two works for Duckie’s Nightbird series – Nightjar’ where she took a group of night-clubbers bird-watching in a Kent forest, and Fragrant the successful pilot for the 2003 project. Jyll’s play Girl, watching was produced earlier this year by The Birmingham Rep and will transfer to Southwark Playhouse in March 2004.

Margaret Canavan was for many years the Deputy Head-teacher of a large comprehensive school in Enfield. Following in her late Mother’s footsteps she is a skilled flower arranger and recently exhibited at the 45th Floral Luncheon at The Savoy Hotel in London.

…The treat of the Nightbird season was Fragrant, a flower arranging demonstration given by two women flower arrangers – Gillian Poulain and Margaret Canavan...Fragrant opened a door onto new ways of seeing, both of theatre and our own personal experience. Jyll Bradley gave space, time and the focus of creation to ordinary lives well lived and in doing so raised them above the everyday . Review of Fragrant in Total Theatre Magazine