An introduction from Murray

Two things have really inspired Twelve Yuletide Yarns. 

Firstly, as a child I was fortunate enough to be told stories by my mother and father. My father’s stories were sweeping and epic; my mother’s were closer and full of detail. I was also read quite a lot of verse by my mother: Hilaire Belloc, Dr Henrich Hoffmann, Edward Lear and many others. At the same time I was listening to my parents’ entire record collection. Everything from the Beatles’ White Album to Johnny Cash, early Bob Dylan and onto Gilbert and Sullivan and the brilliant 1941 recording of Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev) with narration by Basil Rathbone. The thing that brought all these disparate influences together was they were stories told by tellers with unique voices.

And that brings me to the second thing that has inspired Twelve Yuletide Yarns.  Over the last 18 months I and other Funnelwick Limb team members have been visiting primary schools working with and alongside young people.  All the work has been very different (from plays in a day with the Royal Ballet and Opera House, to making 24 audio stories written and voiced by the children, to storytelling workshops) but at each session we have met incredible young storytellers with those unique voices I mentioned earlier.  

Each time I stood up in school to perform Don’t or Annie McClue or even Fartin Martin (great versions on YouTube – do look them up!) I couldn’t help wondering what would it be like to bring a full Funnelwick Limb show into schools?  A show which might try to inspire and enthuse those unique voices and to put some fun, joy and even silliness right into the heart of this festive Yuletide.

And so Twelve Yuletide Yarns was born.  Thank you for coming to see it today – I hope you enjoy the show!

An introduction from Funnelwick Limb

Welcome to Twelve Yuletide Yarns – the third show from Funnelwick Limb, but the first we have made specifically so it can play in school halls and libraries as well as venues like Theatre Porto.  It’s been a delight to bring the core Funnelwick Limb team back together – director Nina Hajiyiani, designer Bek Palmer, writer Murray Lachlan Young and producer Matthew Linley. It’s also been amazing to work for the first time with 3 fabulous artists; our on-stage team of  Rew, Semay, and Beccy.

Our shows have always been made in co-production with Theatre Porto and Eastern Angles – and we couldn’t do what we do without them.  Huge thanks to them both!  Crucially, we couldn’t do what we do without the ideas and wild creativity of young people. This summer, we had the joy of sifting through amazing drawings, writing, and even carrot puppets sent to us by children across the country. Twelve Yuletide Yarns is full of their brilliant imagination! A massive thank you to every young contributor! And finally a huge shout out to Arts Council England and every single National Lottery player – your funding and support is utterly invaluable!

You can find out more about us as a company at our website www.funnelwicklimb.com where you will also be able to find out about our previous shows The Mystery of Raddlesham Mumps and The Chronicles of Atom and Luna.

We do hope you enjoy the show today – we’d love to hear what you think.  Tag us on your socials @funnelwicklimb #funnelwicklimb #TwelveYuletideYarns

And of course HAPPY YULETIDE

Everyone at Funnelwick Limb.

Directors Note

At Theatre Porto, we are inspired by the languages of childhood and qualities such as curiosity, playfulness and fairness. The opportunity to create a new text-based show which mischievously and thoughtfully celebrates the written and spoken word, made especially for the school hall, was irresistible.

In the school environment, the main hall is the one space where children come together, in community. We wanted to provide an experience for a special type of gathering, with a minimalist production, that allows us to ‘pop up’ with lightness and ease at the heart of each school.

For a limited number of dates, we are delighted to be able to present the show at Theatre Porto alongside schools in Essex and Ellesmere Port.

Thanks for being with us.

Nina, on behalf of Theatre Porto

Funnelwick Limb is a small, dedicated theatre team that has been creating high-quality, enchanting new stories for young audiences since 2019. Our previous productions include The Mystery of Raddlesham Mumps and The Chronicles of Atom and Luna. 

funnelwicklimb.com

Theatre Porto is the only specialist venue for children and families of its kind in Cheshire and Merseyside, and one of a small number outside of London.  

The company creates new work, ‘for, by and with’ children and young people, merging the ‘playful and political’ and providing spaces for shared experiences for children and adults. As a cultural hub, Theatre Porto is a space for community, artistic enquiry and learning. 

Theatre Porto has recently joined the Sanctuary Arts Network as the 1st children’s theatre in the UK to be awarded Theatre of Sanctuary status. The company is also a winner of the RTPI awards for 2025, including for Best Overall Project in the North West.

theatreporto.org

Eastern Angles is the touring theatre company for the East of England. We are a regionally focused theatre company with a broad world view in our approach to creating work with community groups and artists in East Anglia.

We aspire to be “Radically Hospitable”. We aim to put extraordinary effort and emphasis on making people feel welcome. We seek to remove barriers that prevent people from participating in the shared experience of arts, heritage and culture.

easternangles.co.uk

Beccy Hillam

Beccy is a Liverpool-based stage manager with a strong technical background. Highlights include working as Company Stage Manager for Theatre Porto’s production of Little Red and most recently with That Theatre Group’s production of The Maids. She is also co-director of Headstrung Puppets and has produced and performed in a number of their shows including The Cryptid Petting Zoo, The Monster Disco and countless Puppet Cabarets! Most recently she worked as Puppet Tech for Life and Limb Puppets’ new show At Sea.

Rew Lowe

Rew is a Bristol-based actor-musician and theatre-maker.

Theatre credits include: Aladdin (Leeds Playhouse); Hansel and Gretel (NIE/Tobacco Factory); The Little Mermaid and The Hare and The Tortoise (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch); Past Half Remembered, The End Of Everything Ever & My Long Journey Home (NIE); Thumbelina’s Great Big Adventure (Dancing Brick/Cambridge Junction); The Three Musketeers (Chichester Festival Theatre).

From 2014-2024 he was a Senior Lecturer in Acting and Theatre Making on the BA Acting at Bath Spa University.

Other credits include: Golem (BBC/Young Vic/1927); Grandpa In My Pocket (BBC), The Ha Ha Hairies (Cartoonito/S4C), and, as director, The Last Hurrah (and The Long Haul) (Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot) and Cookin’ Made Easy… With Mr Zazzizi.

Semay Wu

Semay (she/her) is a composer, performer, free-improviser, cellist, and sound-artist/producer. Based in Scotland since 2017, her audio practice spans 30 years of a uniquely carved musical career, with a deeply diverse compositional body of work, most recently inspired by improvisational perspectives. Semay has written for solo works and a variety of ensembles in different types of media, e.g., released audio, graphic (and traditional, or mixed) scores, video-works, including developing an online community audio cookbook. Having a classical background as a cellist, Semay has always sought an interdisciplinary working method, collaborating with poets, dancers, visual artists, theatre-makers and performers, etc, and is fascinated by how to compose and bring sounds into each different occasion. Semay has worked in theatre since the early 2000s, as composer, musical director, and/or as performer: with Forkbeard Fantasy, Punch Drunk, Avanti Display and in particular, with Theatre Alibi for children’s theatre, including most recently, Ipswich’s New Wolsey Theatre. Semay is very much looking forward to composing and directing the music for, as well as performing in, Twelve Yuletide Yarns. 

Murray Lachlan Young – Writer

Murray is a British poet, broadcaster, and author known for his energetic performance style and work with mainstream media and underground culture. He rose to prominence in the 1990s with a £1 million EMI record deal, bringing performance poetry to a wider audience with his modern, satirical style. Young has held residencies at BBC radio stations, performed at Glastonbury, and written for film and television, while also writing two shows for Funnelwick Limb and leading countless workshops and activities for the company.

Nina Hajiyianni – Director

Nina Hajiyianni is Artistic Director/CEO of Theatre Porto, an award-winning theatre company for children and young people and part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio.

Nina is a theatre maker with a strong track record in child-centred new work. She specialises in visual storytelling, created through playful, and exploratory processes. 

As a collaborator with Funnelwick Limb, Nina directed The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps and The Chronicles of Atom and Luna, both written by Murray Lachlan Young.

Other productions include‘Star of Wonder’ (co-produced with Teatro Pomodoro), ‘Baba Yaga’ (co-produced with Theatre Hullabaloo).

She is currently working with Coalesce Dance on a new dance-theatre work,  Mike and the Polar Bear.

Nina is an Honorary Member of ASSITEJ International, a global association of theatre for young audiences. She was previously Chair of ASSITEJ UK, and is a board member for LAC, Scotland.  

Bek Palmer – Set and Puppet designer

Bek designs sets, costume, and puppets for a variety of performances including opera, drama and theatre for young audiences. She designed The Chronicles of Atom & Luna and The Mystery of The Raddlesham Mumps for Funnelwick Limb.

Previous work includes; The Big Opera Mystery, Pass The Spoon, The Big Opera Adventure (Opera North), The Sandman and the Dew Fairy (Royal Opera House), Made In Dagenham, Betty Blue Eyes and Hairspray (Pimlico Opera), What The Butler Saw, Faith Healer, Abigail’s Party, Boeing Boeing, Same Time, Next Year, No Man’s Land, My Mother Said I Never Should, The Birthday Party, Waiting for Godot and Betrayal (London Classic Theatre), What The Ladybird Heard (Kenny Wax Ltd; Olivier-Nominated 2022), La Cenerentola (British Youth Opera), Hansel & Gretel, A Christmas Carol, Henry II and Matilda the Empress (RABBLE Theatre), Baba Yaga, Spirits of the Seas, Bear & Butterfly, Tiny Treasures, Luna, The Elves and the Shoemakers, Angel, The Night Pirates and My Mother Told Me Not To Stare (Theatre Hullabaloo), The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (Eastern Angles), Alfie White: Space Explorer and Lemony Snicket’s The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming (Tall Stories), Shaun The Sheep (Aardman Animation),  The Duchess of Malfi (Punchdrunk & ENO).  

Outside of designing for theatre Bek likes to get her hands dirty as a prop maker and scenic painter, creating large-scale installations for events and immersive experiences.

Matthew Linley – Producer

Matthew’s work as a Creative Producer sits in the space between theatre, live literature, music and digital.  He is Associate producer on the National tour of Glitch! The true story of the Post Office Scandal by RABBLE Theatre this Spring (2026). Other recent and current projects include The Chronicles of Atom and Luna,The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps (Funnelwick Limb) Henry 1 and William the Conqueror (RABBLE Theatre), KATHARINE (Slaget Theatre with Whispered Tales), Shuff and Byng (Slaget Theatre with Prom Prom Ltd), The City and the Town (Slaget Theatre with Riksteatern) The Ballad of Maria Marten (UK tours with Eastern Angles), Little Red (Theatre Porto/Eastern Angles) & Nina: A Story about me and Nina Simone (Unity Theatre, Young Vic, Traverse Theatre and UK tour 2019).

Matthew was formally Artistic Director and CEO of Unity Theatre, Liverpool, and has creatively led venues in Leicester (Phoenix Arts), Reading (21 South Street Arts Centre), and Bath (Michael Tippett Centre).