Storytelling with Michael Harvey – Details, episodes & analysis

Phil Okwedy is currently on tour with the production company Adverse Camber with his new show The Gods Are All Here. I say 'new' but this show is a lock-down baby that was a couple of years in creation. I worked with Phil on the show and this is the story about how it grew from a glint in his eye to a funded touring production.

This is another fascinating insight into the moment that someone knows that an uncomfortable shift into a creative lifestyle cannot be put off any longer.

A story from Reverb. A father-son collaboration between Michael Harvey, storyteller and author, and bass player Fred Harvey-Love.

This was a commission from the Festival at the Edge, a storytelling festival based in Shropshire in 2010 and includes stories from an international repertoire based around the theme Boys and Men.

This story is from the Middle East and inspired by the telling of Laura Simms.

A story from Reverb. A father-son collaboration between Michael Harvey, storyteller and author, and bass player Fred Harvey-Love.

This was a commission from the Festival at the Edge, a storytelling festival based in Shropshire in 2010 and includes stories from an international repertoire based around the theme Boys and Men.

This story was adapted from a story in Michael Meade's collection 'Men and the Water of Life'

The Introduction to Reverb. A father-son collaboration between Michael Harvey, storyteller and author, and bass player Fred Harvey-Love.

This was a commission from the Festival at the Edge, a storytelling festival based in Shropshire in 2010 and includes stories from an international repertoire based around the theme Boys and Men.

This introductory section features a story adapted from Duncan Williamson's 'The Thorn in the King's Foot'

The seven survivors return to Wales. While they have been away another king has come and seized the throne. The survivors drift into a dreamworld where time stands still. The spell is broken, they return to reality and tell the story.

The Hall of Peace is opened and the Irish and Welsh assemble for a feast. Efnisien starts a fight that turns into an all out battle in which nearly everyone is killed. Bendigeidfran and the survivors return home to Wales.

Bendigeidfran leads his army over the sea to Ireland to save his sister, Branwen. A truce is declared and a huge feasting hall built that even Bendigeidfran, the giant king, can enter.

Efnisien's actions catch up with Branwen. She goes from queen to mistreated servant. She enlists the help of a starling and calls her brother, the giant Bendigeidfran, to her aid.

The giant king Bendigeidfran sees ships coming from Ireland. It's Matholwch, the king of Ireland who has an interesting proposal to unite the two families and countries. A feast on Anglesey is arranged but Efnsien, Bendigeidfran's half-brother, is not invited and he takes a bloody and cruel revenge for this insult. This causes problems between the two kings which are solved by Bendigeidfran (the king of the Island of Britain) giving Matholwch (the king of Ireland) a magical cauldron from the Otherworld, the Cauldron of Rebirth.

Matholwch recognises the cauldron and tells the story of how he first came across it and his encounter with two giants and their terrifying children.

Once the cauldron is given there is peace between the two kings and their countries and Branwen sets sail with her new husband, becomes High Queen of Ireland and has a baby boy, who she calls Gwern, after the alder tree.