May 14th saw Rattle Tales take part in the Festival Fringe for the first time. Being part of such a huge event was fantastic, and meant lots of new faces turned up. A full house of 60 made their way to the Caroline of Brunswick on a gloomy Monday night to see some of our stalwarts and three first-timers read. Jo Warburton made her debut as host, and did great job of keeping things flowing.
Joe Joyce kicked off proceedings with ‘Ganglion’, a tale of gruesome insects and broken dreams. Amanda Welby-Everard changed the tone with ‘The Good School’, a story of over-protective parenting gone wrong. Linda Baker was next up with ‘The Pear Tree’, a poignant story of an argumentative couple, a tree and the triumph of love. Finishing off the first half was Charlotte Feld with ‘The Potential Energy of an Object’, about a man’s misguided curiosity. This was the first of two pieces of flash fiction that were included in the night, a new departure for us that rounded off each half nicely.
The second half began with Ryan Millar’s funny and fascinating story ‘Waking up a Bear’, about a man who wakes up in a zoo as a bear. Alice Cuninghame darkened the mood with ‘All Fall Down’, an apocalyptic tale of the return of bubonic plague to Brighton. Susanna Quinn lightened it again with ‘How to Make Friends and Manipulate People’, a funny story of salesmen and manipulation. Erinna Mettler ended the night with another piece of flash, ‘Elephant’, about a girl’s visit to an elephant.
There was plenty of discussion and questions for the writers, with everyone getting involved and sticking around after to mingle and chat more. Thanks to everyone at Brighton Festival Fringe and Laughing Horse for helping us make it happen.
The night also saw the launch of the Rattle Tales anthology, a collection of 25 stories from all the Rattle Tales nights. Buy it here.
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