All performances are accessible for Blind/Partially sighted audiences without the need for audio description.

 

Contact us at Raggedstorytellingcollective@gmail.com

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Testimonies

9.6/10 from 156 responses

On feedback forms the three most used words to describe the show were “inspiring, magical and enchanting"

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“I'm still thinking of the story you told us in Aberystwyth Museum. Thank you so much. I know a good story by how it affects and resonates with me even weeks/months later. Ann and I really enjoyed it and still talk about the Faceless Man and the wonderful wild people. Thank you.” Ruth Jenkins

 

“Don’t miss the chance to see this!!!  I had the pleasure of attending last night and still feeling enchanted by it. The story is so well written and so well told you can’t escape it. It totally devours you and when it’s over you feel like waking from a dream.

It is full of symbolism, magic, sadness, rage, hope … but what I found most fascinating, was how this hope it seeks to instil, comes not only from the story but from the storytelling itself. It was awakened in my heart by the mere act of sitting  with others to listen to a story; by being reminded that  bards still walk among us ...  Art is community and community is life and life is art. Anyway… go watch this. You won’t regret it.” Binderella audience member

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“What beautiful magic you weave with your words and music. Everyone should see this spellbinding spectacle.” Paul Harwood

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“This was the best thing I've ever seen. On a cold windy night in what used to be Wales.” Lynne Morgan

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“What a beautiful and beguiling tale with sad resonance but a note of hope...” Beth

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“Great bardism as a collective. The wordsmithery and music were very captivating. Awesome!” Laurence Hitchcock

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“Great Storytelling, accompanied by stunning music. Magical Evening.” - Rhian Richards

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“Saw them tonight in Llanfyllin. Go see if you possibly can. Atmospheric mythic well woven storytelling at its best...” - Duxicus Dux

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“Mythic, contemporary and epic” - Cardiff audience member

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“You can feel that you come from that world, that it is a story you believe in and have a relationship with” - Cardiff audience member

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“I don’t know how you did it, but you managed to seamlessly blend archetypal myth with the modern world.” - Cardiff audience member

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“It had a cinematic quality. It was so epic. The landscape was so visual. That contrasted with the movement and and the dynamic of the music kept me mesmerised” - Pauline Down

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“It’s really an emotional story,  but you perfectly balanced it with humour”- Cardiff audience member

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“The physicality of Kes’s performance, the grace. That was mesmerising to watch… You have so many contrasts in the way that you perform. It was a delight”- Cardiff audience member

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“Binderella offered me a vision of what contemporary storytelling can be, and so seldom is. It was filled with deep and compelling imagery which, finely crafted and contemporary as it was, always honoured the old stories. I long to see it again, so I hope Kes might make their way to Canada in the not-too-distant future.” - Jennifer Cayley, Ottawa Storytelling Producer

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“The story definitely gave me a way to relate and understand the scrappy bits of nature and industrial landscapes that I would literally just shut my eyes to when we drove past until I was about 13 and still make me feel deeply unsettled. I can see creative potential and potential value in those spaces now.
Binderella’s shapeshifting and adamance every time that she is not a rat or a fox or a crow is great, it really resonates for me as I’m genderfluid… Binderella’s feralness feels inherently queer. Binderella’s body as a damaged landscape really resonated with me having watched really important people in my life overcoming and slowly healing from sexual assault.

Binderella presents a way to recontextualise ourselves, our fears and our queerness in the landscapes - city or feral, in which we exist. This show dares us to properly look at the mosaic around us, deepen our connections with our human and ecological communities, then face the changes we have to make.” - Ffion Philips 

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“The Ragged Storytellers blew me away when I saw them perform Binderella. Or maybe it was more like a breath of fresh air, that hit me like a lost friend's laugh - familiar, haunting, strange and beloved.

The twisting tunes, given to us by Hazel and Heulwen, has a huge part to play in creating this atmosphere, coiling itself, smoke like, as it does around the audience. I often think that the language of the land of song, sung, feels like an invocation of something very ancient and yet completely current. With Heulwens soul-full vocals it feels like an incantation, weaving through the words, enchanting and enticing.

Kestrel skilfully brings us the story and as with every story, there’s an invitation to step into a world created before your very ears. To some that step might be a leap from life as they know it. For many of us Kestrel creates a depiction of places and peoples we intimately recognise. The squatters, ditch dwellers and travelling folk that make up some of the eclectic cast of characters are completely familiar. For me, the joy of seeing these communities represented on stage was palpable. There’s not much positive visibility of these cultures within mainstream media and what there is coming from these worlds is often speaking to itself, in a loop, eating its own tail. It is so important to have these representations. Especially because Kestrel has also captured something of the beliefs rife in these rabblements that have intrinsically informed their life styles. The fight against the faceless man. I don’t know if I can say any more and not reveal more of the knotwork of a plot. Suffice to say you may find this piece is a call to arms, to fight the good fighting against countless corruptions, media mediocracy and cultural apathy. You may find it reaches in - to find the sacred found in the mundane, the mythic backdrops to our everyday battles. Or you may just marvel at the Anthropomorphic characters joyfully brought to life. Whichever, I challenge you not to be entranced by this profane, silly, moving piece of work.” - Jo Munton 

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“To whom it may concern;

As director of the Montréal Intercultural Storytelling Festival, a major international festival celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year, I am very happy to write a letter of support for the Binderella project, which I had the good fortune to see while I was in Wales in early July at Beyond the Border. (2023)

There is much talk in our community about the future of storytelling as an oral art form. Ours is an ephemeral art form based on encounters with live audiences in a world that is increasingly virtual; the lines of transmission between generations have been broken, and the handed-down intangible heritage of generations of people of all cultures is mostly dormant in the archives section of our national libraries. We don’t attract a lot of young artists to our art form, which is often perceived by the public (and even by funders) as a charming folkloric tradition to be celebrated as a form of nostalgia for a simpler time.

It was thus exciting for me to see Binderella. The show is a mixture of mythologies, from Nordic to Celtic to futuristic, born of a generation of young people who do not belong to one culture alone, who are increasingly an urban mix of identities. The show has both beauty and anger, laughter and grief. It addresses issues of poverty and exclusion and expresses the helplessness and rage of young people faced with a capitalist system which is destroying the world, and which so-called democracy is unable to keep in check. Kestrel Morton is hypnotizing, and the musical accompaniment helped create space and emotion.

I do think this show deserves to be funded and toured. Binderella presents a new voice in storytelling which very much needs to be heard.”

Stéphanie Bénéteau - Directrice artistique et générale - Festival interculturel du conte de Montréal