Beeston Tales: Storytelling that's worth bracing the cold for

It was a cold, stormy night, and Tim Ralphs and I huddled closer to the crackling, wood-burning fire to shake the chill from our adventure-weary bones...

Well, no. It was an unusually mild night, actually. And Baba, the Turkish restaurant in Sneinton Avenues where we stopped for tea, is presumably central heated anyway. It's hard not to get a bit whimsical when spending time with Tim. Just in our introductions he was witty, warm, and clearly a natural storyteller.

Tim is one of the co-founders of Beeston Tales, a monthly storytelling club. Though he prefers the term "co-host", alongside Mike Payton.

"It's our role to host the audience, make sure they feel welcome, that they have a good time. It's also hosting the guests - receiving the storytellers who are touring, making sure they've got somewhere to stay, making sure their needs are met. So host is a really good noun. It covers quite a lot."

An evening in Our Lady of the Assumption Church Hall is typically organised in two parts. The first is a number of "local tellers", with the second half dedicated to a visiting guest who, like Tim, have made storytelling their passion. In between is often a music act.

"I borrowed the idea of mixing music in from Cat Gerrard's Night of the Storyteller in London. It makes it feel like a complete night out."

Local tellers have to be invited onto the stage - this is no open mic night. It's clear the organisers want to put on a good show, and not just a space for people who enjoy orating.

"At Beeston Tales we charge more for tickets [than some other events] - nine pounds on the door - so there's an obligation to feel like I've vetted what's happening and that it will be entertaining. Not gatekeeping, I hope, but curatorial."

It's worth mentioning that the story matter is not tailored for children and often contains big themes, so parents might want to attend a night to test it before bringing along smaller ones.

There are other events around Nottingham, like the DIY Poets Quarterly Showcase, where many types of spoken word are on stage. Tim and Mike wanted to build something different.

"There are lots of spoken-word nights in Nottingham… we wanted to showcase traditional storytelling as its own artform."

Beeston Tales is strictly a storytelling evening (with the bonus musical interlude). That certainly doesn't limit its scope though: this month we heard tales from Middle Eastern folktales (wherein the main character went into self-exile after trumping on his wedding night), the Gaelic origins of Dracula, and a lovely story about a tree who wanted nothing more than to capture the stars. The range of possibilities you'll find in one night are vast, even before the guest speaker comes along.

For stories like these, you can turn to podcasts like The Moth or Super Great Kids Stories which Tim has himself appeared on, but there's something different about being in the room where it's happening, with the teller in front of you. When the audience gasps and the teller reacts, the connection between the stage and the seats is made.

"This telling is a unique, ephemeral event that we share, and then it's gone. If something magical happens, we're lucky - but we're not trying to recreate it somewhere else. It was for us," Tim told me, quite earnestly. "There's something about deeper connectivity - humans being in touch with one another. The story comes into existence between the teller and the listener."

"But as a listener, I love the sense that if I hadn't been there, it would have been different. The listeners matter. That doesn't mean audience participation necessarily, but the storyteller is telling for and to the people who are actually there."

On last night's visit to Beeston Tales, my normal companions were all otherwise occupied, and so I went along by myself. There is the option to catch the stream on Zoom, but I wanted to make the effort to go along even if I was going solo. That didn't matter - people were eager to have a chat. Wherever I wandered in the room there was a person eager to shake my hand and chit chat whilst we waited for the show to start. One couple, Janice and Tony, had travelled from Long Eaton for the show after being so taken by it on their first visit last year, and were already on first name terms with many people around.

Tim touched on something he noticed during his time as a teller in pubs around Sheffield, "It became clear that particularly the English don't just 'hang out'. We need an excuse. A society, a club, a shared activity."

That goes a long way to explain why Beeston Tales is such a cosy event, with friendly folk around who want a chat with a bit of cake, and then settle in for a couple of hours of stories.

Beeston Tales runs monthly, every 3rd Wednesday at Church Hall, 25 Foster Avenue, Beeston. Doors open at 19:00. You can find advance tickets online for £6.50, or £9 on the door. Many people brought along their own snacks and drinks, but there are a selection of cakes and hot drinks available.

As always, there is a lot going on in the world. Stepping into Beeston Tales is putting all that aside for an evening, and taking part in a world spun by carefully crafted stories.