There’s something beautifully old-fashioned about the idea behind Fireside Folktales Fringe. At a time when theatre and live entertainment often seem to be racing towards bigger tech, shinier projections, VR headsets, AI avatars and increasingly expensive spectacle, Shadow Road Productions is going the other way. They’re stripping theatre back to the thing it has always done best: people telling stories to other people, live, in the same room.
Launching in Barnes this May, Fireside Folktales Fringe is a brand new weekend festival of myths, legends, classic stories and reimagined folktales, taking place across four venues around Barnes Green in South West London. Running on 23 and 24 May 2026, with a launch event the week before on 16 May, the festival feels less like yet another polished corporate arts event and more like a gathering of storytellers, performers and curious audiences.
The festival comes from Shadow Road Productions, a female-led company already known for creating intimate theatre in unusual spaces, from gardens and historic buildings to hospitals and community venues. Their work has long focused on accessibility, imagination and connection over spectacle, and that same ethos runs right through this new fringe.
Inspired by Shadow Road’s own Fireside Folktales productions, which cast female actors in all roles and rely on theatrical storytelling rather than elaborate tech, the festival celebrates theatre in its simplest and most human form. No VR headsets. No holograms. No giant LED walls. Just actors, audiences and stories carrying memory, humour, warning and empathy across generations.
The line-up mixes theatre, music, workshops, talks and family events, with everything from Shakespeare and Greek mythology to ghost stories and children’s fables. One of the festival’s most unusual offerings is The Little Broomstick Rider, a dark fairy tale set in 1620s Bavaria, created entirely using paper illustrations, scissors and glue in what’s described as an ‘illustrations-coming-to-life experience’. Originally developed during lockdown, it sounds exactly like the sort of inventive, handmade storytelling this festival wants to champion.
Elsewhere, local history gets its own gothic glow with The Rise, Fall, & Spooky Stories of Richmond Palace, a family-friendly talk by historian and author Mark Lucas. Fans of the musical SIX may already know Richmond Palace from Anne of Cleves’ triumphant ‘Get Down’, where she proudly sings about living there post-Henry VIII. Here, though, audiences can dive into the real history, scandals and ghost stories surrounding the lost royal residence.
Shadow Road’s own Macbeth: Sleep No More also returns as part of the festival, alongside 1 King, 2 Princes & Shakespeare’s Lie, a one-man performance in which Richard III attempts to challenge the version of history Shakespeare helped cement. I do love anything that puts history on trial, especially when Shakespeare himself is partly in the dock. Brilliant writer though he was, the man certainly knew how to write a political hit job.
Families are very much part of the picture too. Younger audiences can enjoy Aesop’s Fables: The Harvest Festival and relaxed storytelling sessions beside a glowing stove, while older audiences can dive into darker material inspired by Greek mythology and folk tales. There’s also an intimate musical theatre concert from West End performer Fed Zanni, drawing songs from musicals inspired by myths and legends, including Hadestown and Disney favourites. Zanni first worked with Emma King-Farlow over a decade ago, making his return to support the festival’s first year feel like a rather fitting full-circle moment.
What really gives the festival its identity, though, is the sense that it is trying to build something supportive and community-led, rather than simply filling a schedule. Alongside the performances are workshops, networking events and industry panels designed to help emerging artists navigate the often overwhelming realities of fringe theatre and arts publicity. There’s also a strong emphasis on accessibility and local engagement, from affordable family events to a free Festival Reading Nook created in partnership with Richmond Library Service.
That spirit clearly matters deeply to founder and Artistic Director Emma King-Farlow, who has spoken openly about wanting to create opportunities for artists who might otherwise struggle with the financial and practical barriers that often come with festival participation. Shadow Road also has a long history of working with disabled and neurodivergent artists, something that feels woven naturally into the festival’s ethos of accessibility and inclusion.
What makes Fireside Folktales Fringe particularly appealing is that it knows exactly what it wants to be. This isn’t a giant commercial event trying to compete with the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s smaller, stranger, more intimate and proudly rooted in its local community. A festival built around connection rather than scale.
At its heart, this feels like a celebration of storytelling itself. Of sitting in a room with other people and collectively disappearing into a tale for an hour or two. In an age where so much entertainment arrives via algorithms and screens, there’s something truly wonderful about that.
Fireside Folktales Fringe takes place around Barnes Green, SW13, on 23 and 24 May 2026, with a launch event on 16 May.
Tickets and further information at shadowroad.com
Words by Nick Barr
Photography by Shadow Road Productions
