Stories To Tell coming to Birmingham REP
Her performances are a love letter to the sleepless, 2am Facebookers and shift workers.
Writer and performer Francesca Millican-Slater DJs her own late night radio show, channelling the rambling raconteurs of presenters from the wee hours to spin a noirish stack of stories – odd, familiar, funny, true and stolen.
Stories To Tell In The Middle Of The Night is her amusing and gripping collection of short, quirky tales that are reminiscent of Roald Dahl's tales for adults. It opens at Birmingham Repertory Theatre from Thursday to February 18. It will then tour other West Midlands venues.
Millican-Slater says: "It comes from waking up in the middle of the night, or not sleeping. At first it's like you are the only one awake, you know this not to be true; the night allows a certain narcissism. You know of others awake and scrolling through blue screen news, looking for people, or contact or news of others dying or dieting.
"I wondered what stories I'd tell to them in the middle of the night. What stories I tell myself.
"Not lullabies to send you to sleep but small stories from the day in frustrations, losses, irritations, heartbreak and hope, magnified and made strange by lack of sleep."
Francesca Millican-Slater is a solo writer and performer.
