Afro-Celt Stories of Magic and Mayhem with Mara Menzies

The Chillingham Arms 89-91 Chillingham Rd, Heaton

Join award-winning performance storyteller Mara Menzies as she takes us on a journey across time and space sharing some of her favourite stories drawn from her rich dual Kenyan/Scottish cultural heritage. Mara has thrilled audiences in 27 countries around the world and is delighted at the chance to bring her dynamic, colourful storytelling style to Newcastle and especially to A Bit Crack. 

Stories for ‘Interesting Times’ with Anthony Nanson

The Chillingham Arms 89-91 Chillingham Rd, Heaton

We live in ‘interesting times’. We might prefer otherwise, but here we are. How can stories help? Let’s take a tour of some other times and places in search of stories that inspire hope – and not only hope but the thing that makes hope possible: kindness.

“How to Spin Enchantment” – Tim Ralphs

The Chillingham Arms 89-91 Chillingham Rd, Heaton

Tim has kindly stepped into the breach this Friday with this exciting show. Phil Okwendy has cancelled

£8.00

Growth Rings – Malcolm Green and Josh Green.

The Chillingham Arms 89-91 Chillingham Rd, Heaton

Gaze at the fissured trunk of an ash tree to where the branches sweep down like candelabras and through the lattice of leaves see one-eyed Odin and two ravens giving him a message … kraak kraak.
Come on a walk through time and space in which the trees, the stars, the birds and our ancestors speak in music and story threads that connect the ancient past to an uncertain future.

Mead and Magic

Join Chris and Richard, regulars at the A Bit Crack open evenings, as they share the evening and take you on two very different adventures. Richard Birmingham: Tales from a Viking Longhouse Poets and story tellers were celebrated by the Vikings, filling the almost endless winters with their tales of gods and giants. But why […]

The Thorn in the King’s Foot & other Travellers Tales. Chris Bostock with The Little Big Blue Band

The Chillingham Arms 89-91 Chillingham Rd, Heaton

Join us for tales of wonders, transformation and magic, passed on from the wisest tellers in the oral tradition. If you can cope with curses, an outcast child, a conniving king, or a warring warlock, you’re welcome to wander with us down the highways and byways of stories from the past and present, with original […]

Nightingale – Sarah Deco

Nightingale tells the story of the migration of a Nightingale from sub-saharan Africa to southern England. The nightingale, inspiration for so many poems and stories and is now endangered in Britain. Alongside the actual story of the nightingale’s life and winding through it, runs another - The Bulbul A-Siah or The Nightingale That Speaks - a traditional Arabic  tale about miraculous reversals of […]

The Hanging of a Mouse – Hugh Lupton

The Four Branches of the Mabinogi were set down on the page in the early thirteenth century. They are stories that had been told and sung by Welsh bards for centuries before they were written down. One of the central concerns of the Mabinogi is the uneasy relationship between this world and Annwn, the Otherworld. […]

Mara – Dominic Kelly

“Morten scrapes a living on the edge of Sweden’s ancient forests. Suddenly he begins to suffer nightmares and mysterious visits as he sleeps. A friend tells him he’s plagued by a Mara …” Dominic Kelly’s warm, witty and powerful storytelling style has captivated audiences around the world. Having lived in Sweden and married into a Hälsingland family, he knows intimately the landscape, […]

Heather Jane with “Tales from the River’s Tongue”

The Chillingham Arms 89-91 Chillingham Rd, Heaton

Stories inspired by old myths and years of roaming the land, researching, mulling and intuiting. These stories were born from the river walk she is still undertaking with the Little Avon River in Gloucestershire, traveling from the sources of the river to the mouth, in the river. Equipped with keen eyes and a listening ear, […]

Katy Cawkwell and Lucy Lill: Wild Visions, Untamed Myth

A double helping of ancient myth that sets the women firmly centre stage. Plunge into the wild world of the goddess Artemis: an ecstatic encounter with the Dawn, a moonlit path that leads to transformation and a dilemma that maybe only the audience can solve… Then meet Kassandra, blessed with the power to see the future, cursed […]