Rachel Rose Reid

Biography

"Immense skill and breathless conviction...there's no faulting Reid's command of her craft" The Times "A glimpse of magic" The Guardian "Polished and compelling...a consummate performer...Definitely one to watch" The Independent RRR is a Storyteller, creating Live Lit performances to melt boundaries and build bridges between the oral tradition of our ancestors and the spoken word of today. She has been named a rising star of the festival circuit by the Independent on Sunday, and is a winner of the UK Young Storyteller of the Year. Since turning her passion into a profession in 2008, she has been a featured artist at Latitude, Camp Bestival, Port Eliot, the London Literature Festival, Burning Man and the Secret Garden Party, at storytelling festivals Festival at the Edge and Beyond the Border and on BBC Radio. She has also received sparkling reviews from The Times and The Independent for her most recent work I'm Hans Christian Andersen. In London and New York, Rachel has been a guest performer at Book Club Boutique, Farrago, Express Excess, Writers' Block, Cable Street Studios, Cornelia Street Cafe, the Soho Theatre, the Barbican, the Tricycle Theatre & Ronnie Scott's, and is part of the Crick Crack Club collective. Rachel is the Curator of Tales for one of TimeOut's favourite nights out in London: Bedtime Storynights at 40 Winks, bringing magic-making storytellers to a story-hungry pyjama-wearing gin-drinking crowd. CURRENT NEWS! Currently on Tour in her show 'I'm Hans Christian Andersen' a bittersweet explosion of Disney's sugary corruption of Andersen's work, and all our dreams of happy endings. TOUR DATES March 9th Aberystwyth Arts Centre March 11th Old Town Hall, Hemel Hempstead March 12th King's Sutton Literary Festival March 17th + 18th Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds April 7th Yard of Tales, Market Harborough April 30th, Granary Theatre, Wells May 5th, Wigan Words Festival May 11th Storynights at Torriano, London May 19th Octagon, Bolton RRR collaborated with the Roundhouse Experimental Choir, supporting polarbear and Dizraeli for Old Roots / New Routes as part of the Old Vic's 'Coming Up' Festival, and will be performing a new collaboration with Dizraeli & the Small Gods on 3 April as part of A Fistful of Twisted Folk III http://www.twistedfolk.com/

Samples

A sample from Two Trees - especially written for A Fistful of Twisted Folk: Above the city two   trees   stand weather worn and scarred with centuries of salt winds twisted backwards by the torment of the coast, stretching out their arms across the swirling estuary, the rock-face dropping down into the river running always out to meet the sea. You know the trees I mean   On Summer days we climb to them in sunburnt beerbuzzed twos and threes, up one cliff path or the other.  They shelter lovers lingering in the grasses at their feet    witness the sunlit promises and shady truths    and if you lie beneath them long enough the whispering leaves re-speak a story of their own: Before the dog walkers and the city wanderers Before the roundheads and the king’s men Before the missionaries and the monasteries Before the Vikings, Saxons, Romans, Celts There were the rugged un-named tribes And since the making of the first man and woman  it was enough to survive and mate and move on with the seasons There was no time for love Meeting was a moment for exchange   love was not known. So, the attention that the people put into their work has since been unmatched, each of them harnessed to their task. When the hunt went deep into the forest, spears sliced straight through life and death before the deer had even noticed, leaving meat to carve and cook and share And a weaver wove such care into her woollen cloth that wrapping it around you in the frost you’d feel her heartbeat at your back Poets practised phrase and quatrain night and day, though all the tales told of solitary heroes and the hollow heart For there was no love So who knows how they met, these two - this man and woman? An introduction from a friend?  By elders’ arrangements?   The World's first blind date? (!) A hushed moment in a clearing when the light licks each leaf a golden yellow under panting black storm clouds? But when they met, they looked And when they looked, it was not as it should be They did not turn back home with the sunset Hand in hand they turned away and climbed high up on the headland to look out This would be the perfect moment for the usual rough exchange, a few shells for a pant a press a pleasure but when they stopped, they saw   And when they saw, they stepped   He pushed the hair behind her ear  She felt his breath against her skin  And raised her eyes  And they greeted lip to lip The  first  kiss   caused the wind to gasp, pull back the clouds against itself, as if it might be sucked down from the skies The  first  kiss  shook the land beneath their feet The people looked up for the flash that came with thunder And knew that things were not as they should be ...not going to tell you how it ends..! Trailer for I'm Hans Christian Andersen: Further samples: http://www.rachelrosereid.com/page9.htm

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.