It doesn't seem a year too long, a decade of Beeston Tales

Sometimes, you’re late to the party. It took until last night for me to catch up with 10 years of Beeston Tales. Bringing people together to enjoy live storytelling for that length of time is a major achievement, celebrated in NG9 by three storytellers and an enthusiastic audience. We also enjoyed cakes and coffees by The DoughMother, whose Basque cheesecake is rightly fabled...

Stories were told by the group’s founders Mike Payton and Tim Ralphs along with special guest – and major inspiration - Saul Jaffe. All of this unfolded one wet evening at The Church of the Assumption, leading me to wonder what assumptions about storytelling I’d brought along with my umbrella.

I liked how the lack of not-male performers became part of the show. That’s a first in their decade of precision yakking, often accompanied by open mike slots and a plethora of guests. Gender disparity became part of the night’s theme, with a tale about a chap meeting a devil in the woods. Each hungry, the mortal cuts off his ‘sausage’, cooks it, and offers it to his guest, who is taken in by the trick and, joining in, for-real does the same thing. Patriarchy tweaked, it made for a ribald start to a lively evening, one with callbacks across the night – part of the joy of a semi-improvised night of quality jollity.

Mike and Tim clearly and rightly relished this special night. For the most part I was with them, as they expertly performed a series of sometimes intricate tales rooted in folklore, informed by theatre, with a dash of slapstick along the way. Now and then, the virtuosity of it felt like this was more about performer than story. But this was (rightly) their party, and that same skill – with gesture, voice, use of space - allowed subtleties to emerge that lesser tellers would have struggled to deliver.

Saul Jaffe set the bar high with his desire to tell ten stories. An Olympian feat, and riffing on Greek myth early on – see the mighty Titan do the impossible - underpinned the mammoth task he undertook. Verbal fireworks mostly worked, along with nuances of voice and physical acting that underlined his Globe Theatre background. Saul’s performance was for sure highly impressive. I was left with a sense that while witnessing lots of plates spin is kinda cool, you’re nonetheless watching crockery. And I want mine in one piece for some more of that legendary cheesecake.

Beeston Tales is a monthly storytelling club. Next event is on Wednesday January 15th 2024.