Storytelling: Literary Tales
Storytelling sessions can be planned to suit slots in the venue's day with up to two hours of telling in a morning and/or afternoon.
To discuss the scheduling of a storytelling visit, please use the contact form at the bottom of this page.
For educational settings, each storytelling set is supported by a pack of online resources to provide context as well as suggesting activities to support teaching and learning.
In addition to the tellings, each storytelling session can be accompanied by a workshop of 45-60 minutes*. In each workshop, students explore narrative through storytelling and drama activities tailored to the needs of the group or age phase. To request further information about workshops, please use the contact form at the bottom of this page.
*this does not include 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in which the workshop is incorported with the performance.
Nettles, Nightingales and Sleepless Nights – the tales of Hans Christian Andersen
(Year 2 - KS3)
Hans Christian Andersen’s stories are among the most familiar of fairy tales and this interactive set of tales includes some of the most well-known including The Seven Swans, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Nightingale, and The Princess and the Pea.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (KS2-KS5)
In this interactive and participative performance, Alastair invites the audience to take on roles in Shakespeare’s comedy of love and enchantment. Shakespeare’s characters and dialogue are brought to life through in-role interactions and life-sized puppets, with complex language contextualised by modern English narration.
The Canterville Ghost (KS2-KS5)
In this interactive and participative performance, Alastair uses a life-sized puppet to conjure-up Oscar Wilde’s great comic creation the Ghost of Canterville Chase, and invites the audience to take on the characters whom the ghost signally fails to terrify and at the same time, try to convince the spectre to live, or at least haunt, in a manner befitting the age of science.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (KS2-KS5)
In this interactive and participative performance, Alastair uses takes the sudience on a rollercoaster ride to Dartmoor and Sherlock Holmes' most famous adventure.
Canterbury Tales (KS2-KS5)
Chaucer’s bawdy humour is brought to life with this retelling of his tales on the road to Canterbury. Through the use of energetic storytelling, Kamishibai, mask and puppet, Alastair invites his audience to travel with the Nun’s Priest, the Wife of Bath and other colourful characters as they pass the time on the road to Canterbury. N.B. tales are chosen for their appropriateness for specific age phases.
Retelling Gogol (KS3-KS5)
Alastair brings his interactive and conversational style of storytelling to Nikolai Gogol’s masterpieces ‘The Government Inspector’ and ‘The Overcoat’, highlighting humour and absurdity in events that serve to highlight hypocrisy and self-interest in the Russian Empire of the tsars.
The Importance of Being Earnest (KS3-KS5)
This workshop performance invites the audience to critique the situations, characters and language in Oscar Wilde’s comedy of manners. Alastair tells the story, inviting members of the audience to take on roles and deliver Wilde’s sparkling dialogue.