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The Haunted Inn and Other Weird Tales from the Saragosa Manuscript by Michael Dacre and Steve Yates

A storytelling performance with music.

In 2005 the guitarist Stephen Yates asked the storyteller Michael Dacre what they could do together. The answer was ‘The Saragossa Manuscript’, the story of a Belgian guards officer in Southern Spain in 1739. His adventures recall the ‘1001 Nights’ in their complexity, ambiguity and narrative virtuosity. It proved to be an ideal combination of audacious storytelling and wicked guitar playing, which captivated audiences all over England, from Bodmin Moor to Hebden Bridge. A decade later this famous, you might say notorious, show is touring once again, giving new audiences the chance to see it and old audiences another go at figuring it out. What can it all mean? Join storyteller Michael Dacre and Steve Yates to find out.

You will meet (very) Moorish princesses, hanged men, and a host of ghosts, ghouls, vampires, gypsies and magicians not to mention bewitching serenades, foot-tapping Spanish dances and eerie sound effects that will send a shiver up your spine. Horror, humour, high adventure and thrilling music mingle in this fantastic duet of wicked words and virtuoso guitar playing.

Count Jan Potocki, a Polish count, wrote The Saragossa Manuscript between 1797 and 1815. It describes the adventures of Alphonse van Worden, a Belgian guards officer, in the haunted mountains of the Sierra Morena in Southern Spain. Alphonse becomes embroiled in a strange conspiracy and is soon lost in a surreal world of terrifying and mystifying ambiguity. The whole thing is puzzling. Is Alphonse the victim of supernatural forces or could there be a rational explanation for his grotesque experiences? Then there are the tales of Avadoro, the gypsy chief: they seem to have nothing at all to do with the main plot but is that the case? Perhaps they are trying to tell Alphonse something…
Catch it, see it, hear it – and be terminally intrigued.

“Risky, weird and wonderful, hard-core storytelling”
“I got immediately drunk on the music and the atmosphere; the deep, sultry, sexual reds of the whole thing”
“It was the best thing I’ve ever seen”
“When can we see it again?”

This is an adults only performance.