7pm 26th March 2026 at Leicester Guildhall
Mythlab presents: The Bodies on the Beach
A preview of a brand new show by Steph Brittain & Ben Haggarty
Step into a maelstrom of myth as irrepressible storyteller Ben Haggarty is joined by electrifying new voice Steph Brittain in a raw rough cut performance of a bold new interpretation of a magical battle that shook the farthest shores of Ireland over two thousand years ago.
Centred on the legendary hero Fionn MacCumhail, his children and his life-long struggles with Donn, Lord of Death and King of the World, this tragic tale traces a long and powerful journey through generations of love, war, sacrifice, enchantment and survival. Combining fragments of 15th-century manuscripts, archaeology and folklore held by farmers, Bodies on the Beach is a resurrection of a forgotten epic – an unknown Celtic Iliad.
We need audiences to help shape how such passionate and unnerving material is reimagined for contemporary audiences. Join Ben and Steph — fresh from the windswept battlefields of the Dingle Peninsula — as they test the edge of ancient myth in modern form.
Raw, lyrical, and unforgettable. What will survive the tide?
SUITABLE FOR: adults 16+
CONTENT: This performance includes references to and descriptions of bereavement, death, sex, war, violence, cannibalism, incest, suicide, infanticide, contextualised within a paradigm of mythic narrative, archetype and metaphor.
Ben Haggarty has been a pioneer of the British and European storytelling revival for more than 40 years. He co-founded, with Hugh Lupton and Pomme Clayton, The Company of Storytellers, the first touring company of professional storytellers in Britain. He founded the Beyond the Border International Festival of Storytelling and Epic Singing and founded and directs the Crick Crack Club to this day. He has studied epic performance traditions in Central Asia and Central India.
Steph Brittain grew up in the West Midlands and is a Drama therapist and storyteller. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and studied Kathak dance in India. Since 2022, she has been a key member of epic storytelling group, Pandvani 108, working alongside Ben Haggarty and Emily Hennessey.
Steph Brittain grew up in the West Midlands and is a Drama therapist and storyteller. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and studied Kathak dance in India. Since 2022, she has been a key member of epic storytelling group, Pandvani 108, working alongside Ben Haggarty and Emily Hennessey.
Booking HERE
7pm Thursday 30th April 2026 at Leicester Guildhall
Tim Ralphs - How to Spin Enchantment
Adapted from The Pentamerone: The Tale of Tales, these high-energy, whimsical, funny wonder tales are cleverly intertwined and a lot of fun.
Spin and weave the tangled roving into one thread of magic. Snap the scissors shut right before the happily ever after. 17th Century Italian Giambattista Basile travelled from Venice to Naples collecting the most marvellous fairytales.
Tim Ralphs (British Award for Storytelling Excellence winner 2012, **** Fringe Guru, Edinburgh Fringe 2014) rouses them from their inky sleep in a joyful performance that dances from the frivolous to the magical. This is a panoply of some of the most lyrical, characterful and hysterical fairytale stories ever offered up for performance. Seven Godmothers, a sleeping Prince, a weeping girl and an enchanted doll that makes its owner crave more stories. MORE STORIES!
Booking HERE
7pm Thursday 28th May 2026 at Leicester Guildhall
Simon Haywood - Strange Majesty: l
Legends of Vortigern and the Forgotten Kings of Britain
... they rode there, helmed
With a strange majesty that the heathen horde
Remembered after all were overwhelmed ...
The famous tales of Arthur are only one small part of a long cycle of legends of
the kings of ancient Britain: tales of heroes and villains, courage and cowardice,
glory and crime, and triumph, tragedy and treason, stretching down
generations, coming to a head in a final war between the Britons and the
seaborne Saxon invaders. Award-winning writer and storyteller Simon Heywood
combines music, song and storytelling to bring new life to a forgotten treasure trove
of tales, remembering the strange majesty of the kings of Albion, from
Brutus to Belin, Locrin to Lear, Arthur, Merlin and Vortigern.
"One of the English storytelling scene's top hands" - Stirrings
Strange Majesty is a companion piece to Simon Heywood's book The Legend of
Vortigern, published in 2013 by the History Press as part of their Ancient
Legends Retold series.
Booking link shortly