Enjoy fantastical tales, poetry and music as we are lured into the world of tricksters, shapeshifters and duppies by John Agard, Emily Zobel Marshall, Tobago Crusoe and Melanie Abrahams.

Join us in an evening of words, music, shape-shifting and storytelling by leading artists who each respond to the cultural history of the trickster through their artforms.

Our fascination with the trickster figure, whose presence is global, stems from our desire to break free from the tightly regimented structures of society, and daily living.

We revel in the fantasy of the trickster whose energy and cunning knows no bounds and for whom nothing is sacred.
Wily, mercurial and anarchic, West African trickster figures Anansi and Brer Rabbit became symbols of survival and resistance in the Americas. Brought to the United
States and the Caribbean by the enslaved, their stories helped to keep oral traditions alive and inspire ways to thwart and undermine the brutal plantation system.

All trickster tales demand audience participation and we invite you, the audience, to share a trickster item with us on the evening – this can be in the shape of a trickster poem, a trickster story or simply telling us what the trickster means to you

Part of Caribbean Fest. Curated by Melanie Abrahams and produced by Renaissance One and Partners