Colchester Fringe Festival 2024
Buckets of Blood – Fairytales Not For Kids
Stories Alive
Genre: One Person Show, Solo Performance, Storytelling
Venue: Three Wise Monkeys - Colchester
Festival: Colchester Fringe Festival
Low Down
Storyteller Eden Ballantyne is like The Cryptkeeper meets Uncle Fester. Buckets of Blood is a macabre evening of lost fairy tales told by a master storyteller.
Review
It takes a great storyteller to get us singing along to the story about the boy who was beheaded by his stepmom and eaten by his dad. Yes, a sing-along to beheading and cannibalism. That’s what you can expect seeing Buckets of Blood, which I enjoyed seeing during Colchester Fringe. Gore. Gore. And more gore. All told with a cheeky smile and wink of the eye.
Ballantyne is an unassuming performer. The show simply begins. Ballantyne talks as a friend just telling you a few jokes and fun facts. This is the magic hidden in the presentation. As the stories start, the music kicks in, sound effects are introduced to add subtle emphasis, and you are transported to a grim world of Ballantyne’s control. The stories, as the title suggests, are gruesome, gory, (and as Ballantyne is quick to point out) require a bit of suspension of disbelief. Honestly, suspension of disbelief is hardly needed. Ballantyne has you under his spell far before you realize it. As each story ends, Ballantyne snaps his fingers, like a hypnotist, and quips “I think they deserved it.” The audience is left processing what just happened and the story they were just told. It’s compelling.
Ballantyne is like The Cryptkeeper meets Uncle Fester. He’s witty, full of puns and dark humor, has the clearest of diction, and manages to draw the audience in for horror after horror. In the ideal world, each audience member would be given a bed to curl up in as Ballantyne tells more and more graphic and disturbing stories. Buckets of Blood is a macabre evening of lost fairy tales told by a master storyteller.
