Boldly taking performance storytelling where it has never gone before
It was an encounter with a professional storyteller in 1991 that sparked Chloë's mission. "Yes, fantastic, and I would do that differently…" she thought to herself. What are the stories of our time? She wondered. What will be Once Upon a Future? From this point on, she decided that her mission was to boldly take performance storytelling where it had never gone before.
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A few years later, Chloë pioneered a new style of Story Cabaret for grown-up audiences - verbal jazz, packed with poetic language and vivid with lived experience. Although much of Chloë's material was rooted in the magnificent heritage of traditional story (myths, legends, folktales) from many cultures, she couldn't resist letting in new original stories and dashes of stand-up comedy alongside enchanting, re-imagined traditional tales. From epic adventure to spicy romance, from a French chateau to a Cotswold village — with wild magic and UFOs on the way.
Chloë's spellbinding style made her more than a traditional storyteller - she was a raconteur and entertainer with a strong stage presence, peppering her sets with innovative new stories and piquant comedy. She sometimes referred to herself as Britain's first 'stand-up' storyteller, bringing unscripted, hot-off-the-tongue stories to 21st century audiences. She was adamant that storytelling is not just for toddlers - fairy tales could be for grown-ups too.
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Chloë's drove a fast German car, preferred Lapsang Souchong tea and lived on an English farm with not quite enough cats.
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