Anansi! Story! Performance Storytelling by Jan Blake

PART OF THE FABULARIUM FAMILY FAIRYTALE FESTIVAL

The fabulous Afro-Caribbean storyteller, Jan Blake, tells some of her favourite stories of Anansi – the original Spider man. This well-travelled mythical figure is a Ghanaian God taken with slavery to the Caribbean, where his deeds and misdeeds have earned him the doubtful reputation of being the wiliest of tricksters and a master of transformation.

Join us to be delighted, enchanted and joyfully shocked by gleeful tales of outrageous greed, selfish cunning and utter foolishness.

For families with children aged 7+

‘one of the world’s greatest storytellers’ André Naffis-Sahely



JAN BLAKE

Powerful and bold, Jan Blake is the Queen of Afro-Caribbean Storytelling. An outstanding storyteller, she performs in theatres and festivals the length and breadth of Europe. Jan was born in Manchester to Jamaican parents. Inspired by recordings of ‘Miss Lou’ (Louise Bennett) she came to telling stories in 1986, and rapidly gained an international reputation for witty and exhilarating performances. Specialising in folktales from West Africa, North Africa, the Arab world and the Caribbean, her repertoire is full of tales of powerful women and her versions of Anansi’s exploits are definitive. In 2004 she took the American National Storytelling Festival at Jonesborough, Tennessee by storm and in 2011 she was awarded the Thüringe Märchen Preis for devoting her life to the artform. She has worked as an artist in residence at various theatres in England, developing particularly close links with the National Theatre, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Deptford Albany, the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith and Battersea Arts Centre.