Skip to main content

Review of Feast Of Fools Storytelling #3 featuring Tim Ralphs at the NN Cafe, Northampton

As the walls of the Royal & Derngate prepared to shake to the tunes of UB40, I settled down in the more sedate environment of the NN Cafe for some storytelling and got... bagpipes! I hate bagpipes. However I stuck it out and didn't flee in the direction of Red, Red Wine.

I am glad I did as thankfully our Feast Of Fools resident host Richard York swiftly ceased the torture of the air bag and the storytelling began. We were given a welcome and indeed as the ringing in my ears had stopped, I was able to hear that a certain highly educated reviewer was referenced in the opening speech. Our host also provided us with a aperitif story before the introduction of the guest of the evening.

The performer of the evening was the bow tie and tails donning Tim Ralphs. I had seen Tim once before in the Underground presenting a Norse inspired piece (review here) and an informative after show Q&A. This time we had a little more Q&A and a performance of his storytelling piece Rebranding Beelzebub.

Picture: @FOFStorytelling on Twitter
This tale is formed of many tales weaved around a supposed (or is it) meeting with the devil in a supermarket, Morrisons in this case, although other supermarkets are available. The snake form of the devil ends up going home with our storyteller and has a resting spot on a table, which very importantly is not made of glass (research since has so far suggested that snakes simply cannot move on glass, although I haven't yet found anything about it being painful).

The whole piece a touch over the hour is a constantly inventive piece which gives a nice variety of tales, mostly of course featuring the devil in some form. Our teller is also an immensely smooth deliverer of the tales, not theatrical in this case, but more a "let me tell you a story" teller. I have learnt so far that these tellers like all things, offer a huge variety of styles and Tim Ralphs is no less fascinating because it is less showy than some. There is indeed room for all types here.

The following Q&A was once again an interesting affair as those assembled offered quality questions and chat pieces. These included the origin of the devil and the fiddle, which did remain unconfirmed during the show, but left many open to research further (I haven't looked at it myself yet). There was also a great moment of sitting painfully upon the fence by Mr Ralphs' as one chap had a challenge for him over whether he was superstitious. Again it was great part of the evening and I do enjoy the Q&A parts of any shows often as much as the main show itself, so I always do now seek them out.

It was a wonderful evening and one of my favourites of the storytelling so far as the modern age setting felt more interesting to me than some of the fantasy and mythical elements we tend to get. I have to say that I am getting into this storytelling lark. The crowd of enthusiastic listeners are wonderful and super friendly and it was nice to see the crowd back in the bigger number again, and like I said before I hope that more return for the open mic version again in July. Although not too many, as I can see a pattern of raffle failure emerging when the crowd is large


Performance reviewed: Wednesday 3rd June, 2015 at the NN Cafe, Northampton.

Feast Of Fools is held on the first Wednesday of each month at the NN Cafe, Guildhall Road. There is a Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/StorytellingFeast and they are also on Twitter @FOFStorytelling

Popular posts from this blog

Review of War Horse at Milton Keynes Theatre

Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse was published in 1982. While it was highly regarded and thought to be his best work, perhaps it eventually came to most people's attention when this striking play stormed the stage, thanks to the National Theatre, back in 2007. Now, War Horse arrives at Milton Keynes Theatre as part of another vast UK tour. Adapted by Nick Stafford in association with the award-winning Handspring Puppet Company, War Horse tells the story of the First World War through the eyes of one horse, Joey, sold for a record price from a family battle but eventually shipped off to war-torn France much to the distress of his original owner, 16-year old Albert. The sprawling and epic story should take some staging, but the vast cast, beautiful structure, stunning folk music and, of course, what this play has become known for, magnificent puppetry, all bring the story to life. This production, directed by Tom Morris and revival director Katie Henry, is a magnificent thin...

Review of Immune by R&D Youth Theatre at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

The cover note for the script of Oladipo Agboluaje's Immune describes it as "a challenging science fiction play with a large cast", and the word challenging in this case is not a lie. This is a fast paced, multi-cast changing script which leaves little room for error for its young cast in the performance. If the script isn't enough to handle for the young performers, director Christopher Elmer-Gorry and designer Carl Davies have made the situation even more complex for the actors with the set and stage work. Having to manhandle great panels on wheels and a huge cube, which also splits in two occasionally, during scene changes requires skill, coordination and cooperation of a high level. As if all this is not enough, the actual story is epic enough for the relatively small stage of the Royal. Attempting to form an apocalyptic world (albeit only happening in Plymouth) offers challenges in itself, but Agboluaje's script does that in a sort of apocalypse in the teac...

Review of Benidorm Live at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes

I arrived at Milton Keynes Theatre to see this touring stage version of ITV comedy hit Benidorm with a distinct lack of knowledge. Having never seen the show, my information stretched as far as knowing it was set in a holiday resort in Spain (the title helps there), and that the humour generally resorted to the cruder end of the spectrum. However, having graced the screens for ten years, it was clear that Derren Litten's show had garnered quite a following, and indeed it was clear from the reception of the audience on the night, that this following was pretty much filling the theatre. The plot, such as it is for this stage show, is very much drafted from an episode of Fawlty Towers , and made a great deal more adult with its humour. The hotel manager, Joyce Temple-Savage (a sharp performance by Sherrie Hewson) gets wind that a hotel inspector is in, and the scene is set for seeking them out and all the obvious cases of mistaken identity. It's thin and doesn't fill ...