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Review of Feast Of Fools Storytelling #13 - Guto Dafis at the NN Cafe, Northampton

The unlucky thirteen Feast Of Fools was not to be unlucky for those in attendance as after a road trip from Cardiff, the quite brilliant Guto Dafis was to thrill the appreciative audience in attendance.

It was without doubt one of the best evenings so far for the Feast as the lyrical voice of Guto took us through an entire evening of three tales. The first half featured two tales featuring the tale of a child replaced by a devilish fairy, while the second, a perhaps even more sinister tale told of another fairy threatening "vengeance will come" on a farmer who had foolishly plowed a field of fairy rings. The second for me was the most interesting with the long drawn out tale taking through the generations cleverly and constantly inventively.

After the interval we were treated to a single much longer tale of an enchantment placed upon a kingdom removing all human life and leaving the family who oversaw it with no one to rule. Sinister at times, extremely funny at others, this was a joy from start to finish. Although a shoe revolt in of all places Hereford was unexpected as we sat listening in shoe town.

Guto offers an overly warm style of telling, much more gentle from many others as he soothes us into the stories. The almost perfect book at bedtime teller perhaps? This coupled with the quite wonderful switching between English and Welsh forms a way with words hardly bettered as the traditional Welsh people and place names emanate from him.

As if this wasn't enough we have the exceptional and gorgeously sounding use of music absorbing into the tales. The accordion not only providing the dancing music of the fairies but the turning of a spit. I haven't seen better use of music within a story to date and this alone would have made an exceptional evening without everything else combined.

So three wondrous and occasionally chilling tales told by an obvious master of the craft and a visibly very humble chap, just wanting to entertain and stir his audience. One of the very best and just simply a captivating evening.


Performance reviewed: Wednesday 4th May, 2016 at the NN Cafe, Northampton.

Feast Of Fools is held on the first Wednesday of each month at the NN Cafe
Full details can be found at https://www.facebook.com/StorytellingFeast,Twitter @FOFStorytelling and website at http://www.storyfeast.uk/
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