Pictured above is the storyteller Clare Murphy, photographed by Paul Blakemore for her show The Liar King.
It was while watching Clare Murphy and Blindboy in conversation at Bristol Beacon a powerful sense arose in me that I must return to fooling in public.
To tell the stories that can only be found in the moment. I had a duty to do this for the audiences that need to hear them, and for myself because I would absolutely love being back on stage.
I was inspired by the way they spoke with passion about how vital it is to tell stories for our communities and ecosystems, to carry on what we care about into the future.
I knew I had to take responsibility for starting my own fooling night, as an offer to the audience and the other fools. I wanted the freedom to stand with honesty in the moment and I wanted the responsibility of making it happen.
But it also terrified me so much that it took almost 2 full years before I had the conversations that would bring it into being.
Finally thanks to support from friends through an Access to Work grant I stopped avoiding it. Now due to the openness and care of Aisha Ali at the Wardrobe Theatre in Bristol I’m delighted to invite you to:
Failing Forward: Fooling with Ed Rapley & Friends.
So this business with stories all circled round again beautifully at The Wardrobe Theatre during a performance of The Liar King by Clare Murphy, the very person whose joy and dedication inspired me in the first place. (Go see her work whenever the opportunity arises.)
The titular king has a fool and at one point Clare says: every fool is a storyteller and every storyteller is a… fool.
This last word is offered as a moment of audience participation and self deprecation, with a ripple of laughter flowing through the audience. A moment of lightness amidst some difficult themes.
But for me the line opened up a vista of understanding, I saw clearly that yes absolutely every fool is a storyteller, only instead of drawing from the richness of the established stories they find what needs to be said in the moment. Likewise the storyteller might start knowing the whole shape of the story but they must step into the unknown each time and find how to tell it for the audience that is with them.
They share a delicious interplay of the known and unknown, the page might start full or blank, but a story will be offered, a connection built, a way of being found that will only exist for with those people in that place.
So it was in the question and answer session after the show, that in asking about this line I accidentally made the first public announcement about the night, first spoke its name and invited others in.
So I have a pair of related requests: please purchase a ticket, please tell someone else this show is happening. I would very much like to make this a regular thing but that requires you or someone you know to be there.