Boy, have I been adventuring this year!
With my fellow adventurer Phil, I spent December in Peru and February in Bolivia. We camped in the Amazonian rainforest, rode to Devil’s Tooth, mountain biked down Death Road – officially the world’s most dangerous road – swam with pink dolphins, jungle trekked to Machu Picchu, flew over the Nazca lines… it really was something else! And later we spent a month in Thailand and Cambodia, exploring Bangkok, the infamous Thailand-Burma Death Railway and the extraordinary Angkor Wat temples. Glorious!
I’ve also performed in Austria, at one of my favourite festivals – Fabelhaft – then extended the stay to visit the Alps at Innsbruck and the art galleries in Vienna. I also swam in the Danube! Very romantic 🙂
Where next? Well, I have already firewalled this December & January to travel to India…
I’m off to India! To Jaipur, to perform at the Kahaani Storytelling Festival. I have performed in India before – at the Hay Festival Kerala – but this is the first time I’ve been to the north, and I am hugely excited!
My new show ARIADNE AND THE MINOTAUR premieres at the mighty Hay Festival next Tuesday.
‘Hay is the most important literary festival in the Western world’ said The New York Times – and I would agree! It’s a wonderful, wonderful festival, and it’s always massively exciting to perform there.
ARIADNE is a re-imagining of the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, this time told from the point of view of Ariadne. She is normally seen as a lovelorn victim: she gives Theseus a thread to help him find his way back out of the Labyrinth once he has killed the Minotaur. They elope, but he abandons on the island of Naxos.
My version tells a different story 🙂 My Ariadne is a determined young woman, passionate and strong. But she is tormented by the howls coming from the Labyrinth. The Minotaur is her half-brother, Asterion, and she has promised to save him from the darkness. Years have gone by, and she hasn’t been able to do it. But then a black-sailed tribute vessel from Athens arrives, and the spindle of her destiny starts to unwind…
It’s a gorgeous show, if I say so myself! I am very pleased with it and can’t wait to take it in front of an audience. There are dazzling images and lovely music: I sing  and play a shruti – an Indian instrument like a mini harmonium.
Here’s the info:
Event 219 •  • Venue: Starlight Stage
A world première from one of Europe’s leading performance storytellers. Ariadne is a bold re-imagining of the Theseus myth, which challenges the notion of Ariadne as lovelorn victim. Beautifully balancing strength and vulnerability, passion and pain, this promises to be a mesmerising performance.
This show contains adult themes (there’s a sex scene in this Hay version!)
WHAT A NIGHT! I told Bluebeard in Barcelona the other week, in the legendary Harlem Jazz Cafe. What was extraordinary for me was the stage floor…. The audience couldn’t see it, but the red lights behind me made it appear  it was stained crimson with blood! It looked like a slaughterhouse floor – perfect for Bluebeard’s bloody chamber 🙂
This is Astana in Kazakhstan – what an amazing looking city! I will be going here at the beginning of April to do some schools work for the British Council. After a few days here, I will fly to Almaty. It promises to be quite an adventure 🙂
It’s a winning combination of scary stories and whacky science experiments with a bit of steampunk thrown in too. And it’s very interactive… The youngsters help me do the experiments 🙂
