Crick Crack Club Presents: SHIFTER

Performance storytelling by Jan Blake & TUUP

Sometimes what you see is not what you get...

Transmogrifying humans; old ladies with animalistic tendencies, feral lovers, protective mothers, Loogaroos with sly eyes – this is a night of transformations.

With unsurpassed style & alarming charisma, The Unorthodox Unprecedented Preacher TUUP, and the mistress of Afro-Caribbean storytelling Jan Blake, pick their way through an untamed landscape in the company of those who can become other – in mind, in body, and in spirit.

Suitable for adults (children 14+)

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 Ananse’s exploits are definitive.

In 2004 Jan 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 this art form.

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

TUUP
Born to Guyanese parents and raised in Acton, West London, Godfrey Duncan - TUUP (The Unorthodox, Unprecedented Preacher) - has been a professional storyteller since 1981, when he joined Ben Haggarty to form the West London Storytelling Unit. Truly an elder of the storytelling revival in Britain, his style is one of total improvisation, unbounded charisma and alarming spontaneity. His fabulous capacity for mimicry and ear for a wild story is outstanding.

TUUP has travelled the world extensively, telling stories all over Europe and in both Northern and Southern Africa. In his role as a creative lyricist, poet, percussionist and vocalist with the highly influential dance music collective, Transglobal Underground, he has performed throughout Europe, Central Asia, Asia and North and South America.