Aesop

From the moment of his birth, Aesop seems to be born with everything against him. He’s ugly, hunchbacked, lame, mute & he’s born into slavery! Through a combination of native intelligence, luck and divine intervention, he’s granted two very special gifts – the gift of wisdom and the gift of speech. He learns to modify his insights to make them more palatable, wrapping them up in fables, drawing on characters from the animal world to illustrate his points.

Aesop uses his gifts and storytelling abilities to talk himself out of slavery, until one day he chooses to tell one story too many, and has to face the consequences.

Aesop is said to have been born around 620BC. Over 2,600 years later, few people know his own story, but his fables are as relevant today as they were in his lifetime. Leon Conrad wrote Aesop The Storyteller in 2007, to commemorate the 200th anniversary year of the passing of the Act of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. In it, Aesop’s own life story is interspersed with some of his best–loved fables. The show is suitable for family audiences – ages 6 and above.

The Storyteller

Is this the oldest tale being told on the 2008 Fringe?!

Over 2,500 years have passed since Aesop is thought to have been alive. He’s one of the best–known and best-loved storytellers of all time. Yet few people know his own story.

Aesop The Storyteller is set to change all that. It’s probably one of the oldest stories being performed on the Fringe – and if not, almost certainly the least known one.

The Book

Aesop The Storyteller – The Book

Performance poetry works best live – and yet Leon’s performance poetry appears in print. His book of 12 versified Aesopic fables is published by Aladdin’s Cave Publishing. And yes, Leon’s found a way to make it work. He deliberately sets out to capture and present all the vibrancy of performance poetry.

The different characters in the fables are given different fonts and the typographical layout reflects the moods and emotions within each story – providing ideal visual cues for the tired parent at bedtime. Each book is designed for reading aloud and comes with an audio CD of the fables.

The book is a available at the venue and to order via bookshops (ISBN 978–0955639104). Look out for flyers for the show with special stickers on them and you could get a CD or a book with the CD for free!

Prize Offer!

Special Flyer Prize Offer!

Will you be one of the lucky people to find a specially–stickered flyer for Aesop The Storyteller – or even better, two matching ones? If so, you could win a CD of fables or a book and CD worth £12.

Look out for a flyer for Leon Conrad’s show, Aesop The Storyteller. At the bottom right hand corner on the back of the flyer there’s a placeholder. It’s worth glancing at – because if yours has a sticker showing one of two scenes from the Fable of The Fox and The Stork, which is one of Aesop’s fables told in the show, you’ll be able to take it to Venue 41 (Hill Street Theatre) and exchange it for a free CD featuring 12 newly–versified Aesopic Fables by Leon Conrad.

If you’re lucky enough to match up flyers with two scenes, you’ll be able to exchange them for a book and audio CD worth £12.