The King and The Corpse - TUUP & Sheema at Beeston Tales

Beeston Tales is a monthly storytelling night meeting just outside Nottingham. We host our events at Our Lady of the Assumption church hall, Foster Avenue, Beeston, Nottingham, NG9 1AE Parking at the venue. Short walk from a tram stop. Cake and drinks will be available, feel free to bring your own booze! But you can also watch from the comfort of your own home by joining our (unfortunately still a bit temperamental) livestream via Zoom. You'll have to bring your own booze to that as well though.

There is a hypnotic feel to the tales: you’re back round that prehistoric campfire again, rapt. – Matt Turpin, LeftLion. (Read full review.)

Let yourself be transported to worlds that are otherwise unreachable. – Bryony Ashmore, Nottingham City of Literature. (Read full review.)

The King and The Corpse
A king carries the corpse of a hanged man across a cemetery at night – but the corpse is not dead, it is possessed by a storytelling vampire, whose enigmatic puzzles threaten to burst the King’s head into a thousand pieces…

With customary charismatic style, performance storyteller TUUP takes to the stage with sitar virtuoso Sheema Mukherjee to tell transglobalised versions of this stunning 11th Century Indian epic fairytale.

Enter a place of metaphor, magic and ritual, where love is always confusing; death and fire are inextricably linked; fruit is never just fruit, and the soul might conquer evil, if only it can keep quiet…

TUUP is The Unorthodox, Unprecedented Preacher. Born in Guyana and raised in Acton, his style is one of total improvisation, unbounded charisma and alarming spontaneity. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s also the creative lyricist and vocalist of the highly influential dance music collective, Transglobal Underground. TUUP has performed throughout the UK, Europe, Central Asia, Asia and North and South America.

SHEEMA absorbed North Indian classical music and the western tradition side-by-side, studying sitar and Indian classical music under the tutelage of her uncle, the late Pandit Nikhil Banerjee and then with the late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Brought up between Britain and India, she has a rich background to draw on in her own compositions and collaborations. Today she is an established sitar player and composer; a regular in Transglobal Underground playing sitar and electric bass; a key member in The Imagined Village project; a formidable collaborator with internationally renowned artists from many genres, including Courtney Pine, Sir John Tavenor, Martin Carthy, Bobby Mcferrin, Boris Grebenshikov, Natacha Atlas, Noel Gallagher & Cornershop, Mercan Dede, the Bulgarian Folk singer Yanka Rupkina.

A night in two halves.

TICKETS and DETAILS FOR THE IN PERSON EVENT:

On the door: £8 on the door on the night, attending live.

£6.50 in advance, attending live. On sale here, but only until the morning of the gig. (If you are looking for this ticket option and can't find it, and it is the afternoon of the day of the performance, you're too late! Come along anyway, tickets on the door as described above.)

Doors 19:00 for a 19:30 start.

VENUE! We'll be meeting in the Church Hall, 25 Foster Avenue, Beeston, NG9 1AE, a short walk up from Beeston Tram Stop or down from Beeston Library. Parking available at the venue.

CAFE! - The great folks from Dog & Bean will be serving tea, coffee and home baked treats. Bring Your Own Bottle if you fancy something stronger.

DAY OF THE MONTH - It's the 3rd Wednesday, get it in your diary!

TICKETS and DETAILS FOR THE LIVESTREAM:

If you're unable to join us in person, there's now an option for you to watch along from home. However, we're upfront that mobile reception at the venue is sometimes inconsistent. (Our current set up involves three different mobile devices on separate networks.) This is reflected in our slightly reduced ticket prices for the online offering. Two kinds of tickets are available for online viewing, either select "Attend online - paying" which will set you back £5 per device, and an "Attend online - discount"... which is free. We know times are harder for some people than others right now, and we'd much rather have you with us than not.

So do come and join us. When you purchase the online ticket, you'll be sent the link. We'll fire out an email on the night of the performance as well, just to make sure you don't miss it. Please don't share these links around. The event will be brought to you by Zoom - It's not tricky. You'll want to download it in advance, which you can do by clicking the link to join ahead of the event.

Big thanks to Caron from PCM Creatives for making this livestream possible. Please note, your receipt will also contain Caron's contact details in case you have any trouble on the night.

Beeston Tales is a not-for-profit community organisation, with all proceeds from events going to support traditional storytelling in Beeston and the surrounding area.