Booking shows
Now available for booking shows in reportoire (solo shows and shows with The AnyWhens) as well as customs sets, pop-up performances (Tea Tales).
Paid performances, ticket splits, festival entry, beer’n’cider, cake, jam and biscuits, etc.
Protest Days, Rebellion Nights [+ The Anywhens]
They were days of direct action: the Diggers and the Levellers, the Plug Drawer rioters and the Pentrich rebels; the followers of King Ludd, and of Captain Swing; of juries, and spies; of executions, and alibis.
The tales of their actions are many; the songs of their deeds are still sung.
And today? Today we will hear some of those stories; some of those songs; so sit back, and let the Protest tales begin.
- — 60 minute fringe show
- — Tales: Tony ‘Monty’ Hirst
- — Music & song: The AnyWhens (Glenn Koppany & Sue Cain)
Monty / The AnyWhens (folk stories’n’songs)
- — Turn taking show — folk songs’n’tradtional tales
- — 1-2.5 hours, 15-20 minutes each story or song set
- — Ideal for beer / cider festivals, semi-formal pub nights, fetes
Tea Tales
Pop-up tales in ad hoc venues.
- — Short tales for opportunitistic tellings
- — As told at: Bearded Theory, Wickham Festival, Beautiful Days, Ventnor Fringe
- — Festival pop-up venues: The Magic Teapot, The Tiny Tea Tent, The Something Else Tea Tent
- — Fringe / local festival pop-ups: Two Cooks (Ventnor), The Met (Ventnor)
- — Open to telling alongside improvised musical accompaniment (esp. guitar, fiddle/violin, piano)
Unforeseen Consequences
A young girl and her brother are given a secret that brings a community together, before a King’s purchase from a traveling tinker ruins his banqueting table. A family heirloom and a kindly deed bring other stories to mind, all in a world with too much time.…
- — 1 hour fringe show
- — Wish Ring [frame]
- — Stone Soup
- — Tinker and the Lamp
- — Sweet Seller and Lamp
- — Too Much Time
Verging on Nonsense
Two farmers try to get the better of their neighbour, whilst a young prince accepts a challenge to win a beautiful princess. A childless old couple are blessed with a child, a blacksmith does a deal with a devil, and young man certainly knows how to use his head.
- — 1 hour fringe show
- — Humourous
- — Set list is flexible, the following was the original:
- — Hudden and Dudden and Donal O’Leary
- — Golden Casket (frame)
- — Ivasik Telesik
- — Blacksmith / will o’ the wisp
- — Persimmon tree
And the Girl Played On
Dark tales featuring determined women, would be one way of putting it…
What happens when a father asks his a daughters a question he probably shouldn’t? Or when the Wolf comes calling? Hear tell of the girl who followed her dream, and nearly ended up losing it, and the other whose dream turned into a nightmare, if only she had realised it was so…
- — 80-110 minute show with interval
- — Dark tales
- — Love more than salt [and/or All Fur]
- — The Nettle Spinner + The Leaves Tha Hung But Never Grew
- — The Devil’s Violin
- — [Godmother Death]
Traditional Irish Tales & Legends
The tale that made me fall in love with storytelling, followed by collection of tales from the Fenian Cycle, relating the history of Fionn Mac Cumhail, his son Oísin, and the warriors of the Fianna.
- — 90 min show with interval
- — The set list is flexible, the following is an example:
- — The Man Who Had No Story
- — Tir Na Nog
- — Fionn Birth / Childhood
- — Fionn Taking lead of the Fianna
- — How Oisin got his name
- — Bran and Sceolan
- — The Cottage / Diarmuid Love Spot
The Winter Cherries and Other Seasonal Tales
It’s New Year’s Eve, and King Arthur is hosting a feast. With little for the knights to report, a storyteller tells a tale of Christmas at the Court of Arthur’s father, Uther Pendragon, and the arrival of Sir Cleges, a once generous knight now fallen on hard times. By some miracle, his cherry tree bore fruit that midwinter Christmas day, but what happened next, when he tried to give the cherries to the King?
As Arthur’s feast is interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious stranger, the Green Knight lays down a Christmas challenge, and Sir Gawain steps up to meet it — but at what cost to himself?
The mood in the court changes, and the storyteller tells a darker tale, of another a tree, under which a young woman prays that she will be blessed with a child as red as blood and as white as snow. (If you think the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales are just for children, then think again…)
Finally, the year turns, and with it, Sir Gawain must set out on his quest to find the Green Knight and complete his challenge.
- — 90-100 minute show with interval, extendible to 120 mins
- — Sir Gawain and the Green Knight [frame]
- — [Uther and Igraine]
- — Sir Cleges and the Winter Cherries
- — The Juniper Tree