Events
Friday 9 Nov 7:00pm
Rachel Rose Reid: I'm Hans Christian Andersen
Charismatic and captivating, this show navigates the love stories we hear, the ones we tell, and those we never finish. Join Rachel Rose Reid, 'Queen of the new wave of storytellers' (BBC Radio 3), on a journey that uncovers the bitter truths beneath Andersen's sugar-coated fairytales and our own hunt for Happily Ever After...
Original Direction by Phillip Breen (Sex With a Stranger, Trafalgar Studios; The Stefan Golaszewski Plays, Bush Theatre)
Immense skill and breathless conviction; there's no faulting Reid's command of her craft The Times
A consummate performer...very much one to watch The Independent
Friday 9 Nov 9:00pm
Story Jam
The London Storytelling Festival presents a night of tale-telling through song, from top festival names in music and comedy. Book early to avoid disappointment (Story Jam was a swift sell-out in 2011's London Storytelling Festival!). Tonight will feature story songs by the amazing:
- Tom Adams
- James Hancox (of Abandoman)
- A Man Plays Violin In The Dark
- Thom Tuck, with a special "story-song sing-along" (with souvenir song sheets!)
Saturday 10 Nov 12:00pm
Deborah Frances-White: A Walk On The Wild Side
Deborah Frances-White is one of the authors of The Improv Handbook, a screenwriter, comic and the creator of Edinburgh Festival improvised hit Voices in Your Head . In this workshop she will look at why story is so important to improvisation and work on improvising compelling hilarious, narrative driven monologues and scenes. Deborah will show you how to jolt surprising ideas out of your unconscious (rather than relying on your stock characters or bag of tricks). Your scenes will be directed, so you can stick to your best ideas and fashion them into exciting, spontaneous stories. If you feel your improvisation is getting a little samey, that you’ve “been in this scene before” or that you need a new perspective – this workshop is for you. If you’re happy to explore some dangerous, dark places, to find exciting new stories and comedy – then come and play!
Saturday 10 Nov 7:00pm
Martin Dockery: The Holy Land Experience
Wrestling with monogamy and infidelity (guess who wins?), Dockery comically travels through the land of the über-faithful - from a religious theme park in Orlando to Christmas Day in Bethlehem - ineptly in pursuit of something, anything, to believe in. An explosion of storytelling - not to be missed!
Astonishing. Exhilarating. This kind of theatre is church for us non-believers. Elizabeth Maupin, chief theatre critic, Orlando Sentinel, Florida.
Both an awesome travelogue and an exploration of a questing soul. NYTheatre.com (NYC)
Dockery's talent for weaving mile-a-minute tangents into comedy and his off-kilter slacker charm ensure that his monologue is highly entertaining, with plenty of one-liners and some thoughtful ruminations on love and human connection CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp)
Skillfully woven, unpredictable and visual, coupled with a sense of humor that makes people shut up and listen. Post & Courier, Charleston, South Carolina
Mesmerizing. Winnipeg Free Press, Canada
Saturday 10 Nov 9:00pm
John Luke Roberts: Sock Puppet
After a hit debut at The Yard Theatre in Hackney, John-Luke Roberts brings his one man storytelling play to the London Storytelling Festival. The stupid and thoughtful tale of a haunted sock, and the man who finds him.
John-Luke Roberts is a writer and comedian. He's the co-host and founder of the sell-out hit the Alternative Comedy Memorial Society, and a regular writer for Radio 4?s The News Quiz. His first solo show 'Distracts You From a Murder' was called a 'brilliant solo debut' by the Independent.
Sunday 11 Nov 12:00pm
Sarah Bennetto: Storytelling Workshop
The artistic director of the London Storytelling Festival and of London's much-loved Storytellers' Club, shows you how to choose and tell your story like a fireside raconteur. Meet other aspiring storytellers and share in an afternoon of breathing life into your own tales. Sarah Bennetto is a stand-up comic and radio presenter, who has toured her feature-length storytelling shows at arts and music festivals all over the world.
You will also have the opportunity to tell your finished story live on Sunday 18th November from 4pm to 5pm, in the Leicester Square Theatre studio as part of a workshop showcase with a supportive, invited audience.
Sunday 11 Nov 7:00pm
Jo Neary: Youth Club
Where do you go when you're 15, bored, living in a backwater and reduced to taking woodlice around the front room in a toy train as a sport?
In renowned character comedian Joanna Neary's delightful hilarious story of teenage longing, crushed dreams, weak squash and competitive dance, there's only one answer.
Youth Club is a one-person multiple character comedy about a group of kids and their familes, all growing up in a small town where once there was industry and now there is none.
Based on a true story that chimes with absolutely everyone, it will make you hoot with laughter and cringe with embarrassment.
Quirkily told and beautifully written, Neary mines those teenage years for the ultimate embarrassment. **** Chortle
As engaging an hour of comedic storytelling as you are likely to find **** Fringe Review
A touching story, hugely entertaining and original ***** Latest 7
Both sympathetic and hilarious.... a compelling mixture of stand up, one-woman show and storytelling... simultaneously innovative and entertaining **** Exeunt
Sunday 11 Nov 9:00pm
Asher Treleaven: Troubadour
Troubadour follows award-winning comic storyteller Asher, from a transient hippy upbringing in the Australian outback to a failed career as a circus-performing promotional biscuit mascot. A show that poses the question 'is my life interesting enough to talk about for an hour?'
Edinburgh Comedy Awards, Best Newcomer Nominee 2010.
A post-modern Barry Humphries. The Australian
Wednesday 14 Nov 7:00pm
Martin Dockery: Wanderlust
With his unique brand of energetic storytelling, Dockery sweeps us down a desert track towards a wide-open expanse of nothingness: a trek to Timbuktu in search of an Epiphany. Any Epiphany at all. A true and hilarious anti-adventure, Wanderlust is an anti-story barrelling towards an anti-climax, one that mirrors the mundane adventures in our everyday, exotic lives.
Best-of-Fest: Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Orlando.
Winner: Adelaide Critics Circle Award, Australia
A tour de force. Orlando Sentinel
Spectacularly good. Absolutely unforgettable. NYTheatre.com
A masterful storyteller. The Herald Sun, Melbourne (Melbourne Comedy Festival.)
A one-man storytelling tornado. The Stage, Edinburgh
Enthralls. One4Review, Edinburgh
5-stars The CBC, Edmonton Journal, Winnipeg Free Press, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Toronto Eye Weekly, Victoria's Monday Magazine, Edmonton Sun
A master storyteller. The Post & Courier, Charleston
A psychological journey that had us literally on the edge of our seats. The Advertiser, Adelaide, Australia
Wednesday 14 Nov 9:00pm
Sarah Bennetto is Lucky
Sarah Bennetto is lucky. She's won it all: concert tickets, holidays, shopping sprees, the lottery, a car, 27 cans of hairspray.
People always tell Sarah she's lucky. But what is luck? Can you make your own? And should you? The truth is, there's a point at which most people eschew luck in the name of having a nice, normal life. Not Sarah.
She lives in a house full of soup tins with no labels, she has radio stations on redial (but not her parents) and she's one of 'those people' who camp out overnight for concert tickets. Lucky is the story of a girl's desperation to seek out fortune... and the fellow freaks she meets on the way. This is your chance to learn the secrets of a winner (of 27 cans of hairspray).
For the last 10 years, Sarah's been performing stand-up in the UK, (the land of the lucky penny!) creating offbeat television and radio at arts and music festivals, worldwide. She is the person behind the cult hit Storytellers' Club (also appearing at the London Storytelling Festival 2012), and hosts a weekly music radio show, "Sarah Bennetto's Mix-Tape" on Dalston's NTS Radio. This is a special chance to see her critically-acclaimed first ever full-length solo comedy show.
Bennetto delivers effervescent, confident and well-structured stand-up. Her tales of outrageous fortune are suffused with urbanity and wisdom, and buoyed by a lightly rendered sense of nostalgia. The Age, Melbourne
Sarah Bennetto is a storyteller par excellence. Time Out, London
Sarah Bennetto is a winner. Holidays, cash, a car, concert tickets, and now she can add a corker of a comedy festival show to her list. Australian Comedy Review
She succeeds because she is such a skilful raconteur, not only coaxing big laughs, but also those moments of poignancy and inspiration to which so many performers don't even get close. Three Weeks, Edinburgh
The undeniable star of the show is the scintillating storyteller, Sarah Bennetto. Her stories and anecdotes are particularly funny. Broadway Baby
Thursday 15 Nov 7:00pm
Wil Hodgson: The Passion of the Hodgson
In 2004 a magical thing happened in the tiny back room of a pub in Edinburgh. A new storytelling comedy force was being born. This show, with no blurb, no publicity, (and a village chip-shop-sponsored poster) was quietly blowing minds. This charmingly told collection of tales, spoke of a fantastical world of punks and skinheads, of love and war - all set in the west country village of Chippenham. At the end of that month, this curious man, and his tiny anthology of tales went on to win the Perrier best Newcomer.
Nowadays, Wil Hodgson is a critically acclaimed cult comedy hero. Come see the show that started it all.
It is the London Storytelling Festival's great honour to present a rare reprise of a hugely-lauded and much-missed show.
Winner - Perrier Best Newcomer Award 2004
He is a truly individual storyteller for the jilted generation, one with all the potential to be a cult hero. Chortle
An undeniable talent...a genuine find Telegraph
A conviction all too rare in stand-up comedy these days. Hodgson is a huge comic talent. Metro
He's funny. **** The List
Total, soul bearing honesty - a man with no choice but to suffer for his principles The Guardian
An effortlessly spellbinding narrator. His stories are wry, laugh-out-loud funny, and genuinely affecting, running with a rhythm that makes him the closest thing we have to a West Country beat poet. The Guardian Guide
Wil Hodgson's frantically hilarious routine is about being an outsider, but then what would you expect from a mohicaned ex-skinhead with tattoos and makeup that has My Little Pony fixation. The List
Thursday 15 Nov 9:00pm
Flight of Fancy: A Story Challenge
A selection of dynamic comedy minds are challenged to write a short story on theme of "Chancing Your Arm". A compendium of bespoke, mesmerising tales worthy of Scheherazade herself - read, performed and acted out by "the talent".
Tonight's fantastic writers:
- Ben Target (2012 Edinburgh Comedy Award Newcomer Nominee)
- Sadie Hasler (Russell Howard's Good News)
- Sarah Solemani (Him and Her and Bad Education)
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge (The Iron Lady and Good Clean Fun)
- Deborah Frances-White (Voices in Your Head, Cult Following, How To Get Almost Anyone To Want To Sleep With You)
Friday 16 Nov 7:00pm
Martin Dockery: The Surprise
The ruins of the largest temple on Earth, Angkor Wat, and the crumbling remains of Dockery's relationship with his girlfriend must be simultaneously negotiated, even as his father in Vietnam suddenly unveils his family's deepest secret. Hilarious, heart-breaking, and true, all in one devastatingly exquisite moment.
Best of Fest -The Edmonton Fringe (North America's largest fringe festival)
Audience Choice Award -The Frigid New York Festival
Best Solo Performer -The San Francisco Fringe
Performer of the Year -SoloNOVA
Finalist for the for Best Solo Performer and Best Short Play. -New York Independent Theater awards
5 stars. The Edmonton Sun, Canada
5 stars. The Star Phoenix, Saskatoon, Canada
Truly vivid. The New York Times, New York
Friday 16 Nov 9:00pm
Deborah Frances-White: Half a Can of Worms
Deborah Frances-White was adopted at ten days old - up until late October 2012 she had no idea who or where her birth-family were. An extraordinary run of events means that she is suddenly living as a round the clock internet Nancy Drew, finding out more information every hour about her birth mother, aunts, uncles, grandparents and even possibly half brothers and sisters. What she is learning, is that you can't open half a can of worms. Come and discover her mysterious past, inevitable future and heart-pounding present as her story unfolds.
Gloriously talented! Time Out, London
Jaw-dropping, consistently hilarious. Fringe Biscuit
Saturday 17 Nov 12:00pm
Martin Dockery: Weekend Storytelling Masterclass
Martin Dockery is an internationally renowned storyteller, over from New York City as a guest of the London Storytelling Festival. Martin has won 19 awards for his shows and is a seven-time finalist in The Moth's Grandslam Storytelling Championship (New York's famous storytelling phenomenon.)
This two day workshop will help you turn your real life anecdotes into compelling narratives. Martin will cover how to create startling openings, riveting middles and unforgettable endings. He will coach each participant in how to re-shape their stories, so it is suitable for beginners or experienced storytellers. You will leave with the confidence to put together and present dynamic stories – and have the opportunity to tell a story live in Leicester Square Theatre studio, at the end of workshop showcase with an invited audience, on the Sunday from 4pm to 5pm.
Saturday 17 Nov 7:00pm
Liam Mullone: In a Dead Man's Hat
Robbed by a stripper and forced to spend five weeks in the desert outside Las Vegas, Liam Mullone was left with only a clapped-out van, a bag of pork chops, and his thoughts. Oppressed by heat, hunger, homicidal maniacs and policemen, he determined to find the meaning of life before his new bank cards arrived. Mullone tells how he survived near-starvation, desert maniacs, self-loathing and the world's worst paperback, with the panache that made him a valued writer (BBC Radio's Now Show, Milk Run).
In a Dead Man's Hat is ridiculous, astonishing, hilarious - and entirely true.
Will hit the big time Evening Standard
Sharp cynicism and clever, devious wordplay Chortle
Brilliant - a tour de force! John Pidgeon, BBC
Saturday 17 Nov 9:00pm
Storytellers' Club
A special London Storytelling Festival presentation of this much-loved storytelling evening with tales from clever and cool stand-ups. Join your Host and Narrator, Sarah Bennetto, and special guests telling tales - brilliant ones. As simple (and as magical) as that.
You show. We tell.
With Sarah Bennetto (your host & narrator), and special guests, including:
- Tom Bell
- Wendy Wason
- Damian Clark
- Aisling Bea
Follow us on Twitter for more announcements.
Shows like Storytellers' Club are what make the Comedy Festival so special Australian Comedy Review
Just go and see it. Time Out, London
Unashamedly literate and lo-fi The Independent
A magical idea The Metro
Sunday 18 Nov 7:30pm
The Voices In Your Head
Russell Tovey, Humphrey Ker, Thom Tuck and other soon-to-be-announced comedy gods, go head to head with a disembodied Voice on a microphone who will interrogate, provoke and cajole them to create dark-hearted hilarious story mayhem. See the hidden depths of the human unconscious pushed to their illogical conclusions in this unforgettable, unmissable, electrifying and hilarious show.
Deborah Frances-White's Edinburgh Fringe hit breaks every rule in the story book and leaves the mesmerised audience begging for more.
Inventive, funny and wildly ambitious - you'll never see anything quite like it. ***** The Skinny
The audience was electrified! The New Statesman