Storytime at Torriano
Tonight, storyteller Nell Phoenix - who has a newsletter I've signed up to - advertised a night of storytelling at Torriano Avenue! Right, that was me sorted.. except the work I said I'd get done on this, my last day of work before the holidays, didn't get finished. So I stayed a little later than I otherwise would've - but when I saw that the person who had asked me to let her know how far I'd got before I left had logged off without chasing me, I decided to head off, do it later. It's waiting for me when I finish the blog.. uhh..
This turned out to be far enough away that I needed the Tube. I could have walked to London Bridge - but when I saw that a bus going that way was due, I took that instead. Not actually sure that it wouldn't have been faster to walk.. anyway, I'd had a look at where to eat, and the winner was Nando's Kentish Town. There's a direct line to Camden Town - again, pleasantly uncrowded, and Google Maps was good enough to tell me to take the Kentish Town Road exit. It's roughly a 15-minute walk up Kentish Town Road to Nando's - which is unobtrusive enough that I actually passed it without noticing!
Well, service was quick and friendly, and the food was delicious - what can I say? I always find branches out of the centre to be of better quality. I'd nearly have had a second glass of wine, but I didn't want to cut it too fine - it was another 15-minute walk to the venue, and I hadn't been there before, so wasn't sure of the way. Apart from the address, the only instruction we'd been given was to "tap on the orange door" - I didn't have to, it was open, and indeed someone went in just before me!
Inside was a room full of chairs, a raised part at the far end making a stage, with a couple of steps up to it. And on a table on the side - as promised - a massive bowl of mulled wine (in progress - Nell was making it, and poured half a bag of sugar into it as I watched), a plate of stollen of different kinds, a plate of, as someone described them, "radioactive-looking" cheesy wotsits, and sundry chocolate, which hadn't been opened by the time I left. But I had a glass of wine - which someone thought was too sweet, but was to my taste - and was offered another. Also had a couple of pieces of stollen, and some wotsits. All very convivial!
What's more, audience members were invited to tell stories themselves in the first half! Indeed, I recognised one of those who volunteered - she'd been a storyteller at an event I was at, years ago. She told a couple of legends of St. Nicholas, appropriately. Nell herself told a version of the Christmas story involving a babushka - another, a Scandinavian story of a man and his pet polar bear, frightening off trolls - and yet another, the tale of a man who kept gatecrashing an event that you were required to tell a story to attend. Dismissed for not having a story, he finds himself in the middle of a fantastic one. The one man who volunteered was Irish - turns out to be Giles Abbott, partially sighted, and a professional as well - and told a story I'm sure I've heard, about a wandering farm labourer, walking home for Christmas, who runs into a group of fairy horsemen..
And so an interval, and into the main act - Niall Moorjani, who gave us the gay version of The Green Knight. Quite physical, with some excellently fashioned headgear, and injected with a great deal of humour, this was highly entertaining! I was quite tired, unfortunately, so didn't get quite as much out of it as I could have - but it's a lovely, cosy venue (apparently a community centre at other times), and Nell is planning something monthly here. So I'll definitely keep an eye on it - storytelling has become a bit sparse of late! The walk back to the Tube was shorter from here, without having to detour via Nando's..
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