Winter Mayven Festival

Welcome to the Winter Mavyen – a festival like no other!

“An extravaganza of music, comedy, cabaret and storytelling celebrating women and the solstice…”

Drawing upon the combined talents of more than 100 acclaimed artists, and following from the success of the Summer Mayven Festival, the Winter Mayven will be held in venues throughout Cornwall and online from 12 to 21 December.

Described as ‘an extravaganza of comedy, cabaret, festivity and feminism, storytelling and witchcraft’ the Festival will mark the 20th anniversary of much-loved local production hub Scary Little Girls… and shine a light on the most catalytic and cathartic time in a woman’s life: the Mayven (explanation below…).

And the great news is that wherever you are in Cornwall, there’s an event on your doorstep:

Monday 12, presented with C Fylm – Salon du Cinema: I Married a Witch!

The festival kicks off with an evening of film, cabaret, comedy, music and storytelling exploring depictions of witches and celebrating Veronica Lake’s iconic performance in this quirky 1942 screwball comedy.

Tuesday 13, presented with The Minack, live online performance – Blue Moon rehearsed reading

What happens when the sea meets the land, when responses have to be made to climate change? And what are the politics of living on an island with several female generations of your female family? The play is inspired by Paula Rego’s painting THE DANCE and comes from the stunning backdrop of the Minack Theatre.

Wednesday 14, The Poly, Falmouth – Menopausal Mayhem & Monologues: Double Bill

Fresh from a sold out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Menopausal Mayhem is the perfect antidote to the doom and gloom surrounding the menopause. It is a one-woman show focusing on the funny side of the menopause and also the uplifting freedom and positivity it can bring. Come along and laugh until the tears run down your legs – and feel reassured that it isn’t just you! Jennifer Kennedy is the award-winning author of Martha Gets the Menopause and Galloping Catastrophe: Musings of a Menopausal Woman, as well as the hugely successful blog Is It Just Me?

And for act two, we bring you Menopausal Monologues – a collection of personal monologues honouring the topic of the menopause and midlife. Continuing the trend of breaking the silence around the menopause, they give voice to a variety of women’s (and some of their significant others’) real experiences.

Compered by Rebecca Mordan with comedy, songs and the Radical Rep.

Mother’s Ruin Cabaret – Thursday 15th, 7.30, Pocketful of Stones, Penzance

Yes, it’s Scary Little Girls’ 20th birthday! No, we can’t believe it either!

But by the goddess we are going celebrate the heck out of it!

Join compére Rebecca Mordan – or Bunny Morethan to those who know her from the Glastonbury Festival Big Top – and award-winning comedian Colin Lego for an evening of music, stories, comedy, special guests and surprises from the finest fems from the Cornish arts scene.

Expect gin cocktails, festive games and the anarchic joie de vivre that SLG have been known and loved for these past 20 years…

Tickets – £10, £6 cons (we consider anyone who needs to be to be a concession, so please pay at this price if this allows you to come along)

Friday 16, The Drapery, Redruth – Salon du Chocolat

Indulgent chocolate treats and scandalous tales!

Let us stimulate your senses in our intimate storytelling salon celebrating the relationship between cocoa nibs and forbidden literature…

When chocolate was first brought to England in the 1600s, it was considered a taboo substance, enjoyed only by the risque and elite in private salons. Some of our finest literature was also once considered too provocative for public consumption and was heard in similar salon environments by only the boldest of ears. We recreate these intimate environs, combining mouthwatering chocolate treats with tales of the secret, banned and scandalous from authors such as Lord Byron, Radcliffe Hall, Mae West and Joanne Harris.

Performed, read and sung to you by our highly acclaimed storytellers, the Salon du Chocolat invites you to succumb to a literary seduction with treats from our in house chocolatier!

17 December, daytime, Menstrual Creativity Workshop with Amy Draper

A 2 hour online workshop that explores how to run a menstrual cycle aware process to benefit both your participants and the work. It will demystify, provide language to use and give confidence to talk about this, incorporating:

+ Fears and taboos of bringing menstrual cycle awareness into the workplace

+ The Inner Seasons – an outline of the different monthly energies

+ How to harness these as an individual creative

· How to run a team or a room with this and menstrual wellbeing in mind

Saturday 17 – Riot Showgrrrls Club

In 2008, when lad mags were in their hay day, cabaret meant tit tassels and female stripping and porn was being main-streamed right into our cultural veins, Scary Little Girls bravely took a pro sex anti porn show to Edinburgh. They claimed that ‘it’s an empirical fact that feminists have the best sex’ and used throbbing, electro-pop and gleeful, musical romps to lay out why – and how porn ruins this.

Now in 2022, still putting the “camp” squarely into “campaigning”, our heroines Rebecca Mordan and Christina Li are going to use games, comedy, songs and hand-stamps to look at how we are faring since in these days of hyper-social media and Pornhub. Expect make-your-own-membership cards, vulva cupcakes and Patriarchy Bingo in this fast paced, feel good, feminist fling – and there will be dancing in our revolution!

Sunday 18th December, Mousehole, 11am – 4pm – Lights On, Lights Off Storytelling Walk

Our most requested project is at last brought back for our 20 year celebrations! We are incredibly proud of these much-loved walks, which are really site-specific events: part self-guided tour, part promenade performance.

Our audiences are given a specially written route to follow, which not only directions them but also points out hints and histories about where they are, and as they walk they encounter actors who perform poems or short extracts of prose as if they were mini-plays. Featuring a range of guest sand new writing including Anna Maria Murphy, Bec Applebee and The Splendid Sisters.

Tuesday 20, presented with the Minack and Creation Theatre both live and online – A Scary Little Tempest

You are invited to a very usual wedding – Prospero and Ariel know you are coming but the bride and groom haven’t even met yet! In their own cabaret style, Scary Little Girls use live and digital fusion to examine the love stories at the heart of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, combining live-streamed scenes, songs and projections.

Featuring the talents of the Radical Rep and guest illustrator Rima Stains, this 50 minute frolic into this classic text uses Cornish mythology and the Minack’s rugged sea-scape to explore themes of power, intimacy, manipulation and hope.

Follow proceedings from shipwreck to goddess-led wedding celebrations from the comfort of your own home, or join us at the Minack for this solstice sea-set one-off special!

Wednesday 21, presented with the Minack online – Solstice Stories

From the comfort of your cosy home, follow performers from Scary Little Girls around the majestic Minack theatre as they read you specially commissioned stories about Cornish Solstice heroines. Enjoy the words of Cornish favourites like Anna Maria Murphy and LH Trevail and uncover new gems, all performed from the stage, balcony and backstage hidy holes of Cornwall’s most magical venue.

“Even though the festival features women, it certainly isn’t exclusive to them “ explains Rebecca Mordan, artistic director of Scary Little Girls. “We want everyone to get involved as the artists in our Radical Rep use wit and wisdom to pay special honour to the Mayven and Cornish creativity”

“A Mayven is, when independent of guardians and fee of dependants, a woman is at her most magnetic, sexy and powerful. How long does it last? Until the woman herself is ready to enter old age. We believe it’s time to celebrate it!”

To find out and get updates on the developing line up more visit https://scarylittlegirls.co.uk/mayven/