Backstage Stories; Clare Murphy – The Spanking Goddess and Other Discarded Tales

This October we have the storytelling genius that is Clare Murphy – coming back to Bristol, exhuming the Celtic canon to bring back the wild women who never made the cut back into the light.  Clare will be lighting up the Factory stage with her show The Spanking Goddess and Other Discarded Tales.

We asked Clare to give us an insight into her own story both on and off the stage.  What makes her tick and why she is looking forward to being back in Bristol, and my oh my – what a story it is!:

“Nineteen years ago in a small flat in Galway, Ireland I stood up in front of 6 friends and told a story. It was January 2006. I had already been looking into storytelling for about 4 years. That moment in January was the raindrop that led to a flood. Within a year I was performing in other countries, running events in Galway and learning stories as fast as I could.

I come from a family of performers and poets, but in my youth I had always seen myself as *only* a writer; as if art requires only one medium from each person. Watching performance since age 5 shaped the way I thought about what it means to perform, what audiences need, what a voice can do, what makes a piece work.  I went on to learn from several teachers who trained at LeCoque in Paris as well as other mentors.

Once I stepped into the river of story – which is how it feels to be in the flow state of performance, I never looked back; the dose of wonder and awe that the audience and I get is simply too addictive to leave behind. Although storytelling is often seen in the western world as something for children, in most indigenous cultures across the world it is a society-wide practice for entertainment, sharing knowledge and creating community.

Since 2006 I’ve had some wild times with story, I performed my show “UniVerse” at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. I performed for 5000 people at a festival in Utah and told stories at Shakespeare’s Globe. My dad would have been proud to see it. I now run my own podcast on patron, host international events online, and will be making a new show for 2026 as well as something in print…more on that soon.

I am over the moon to be back at TFT. I have performed there several times as part of the incredible Women Who Gave No F**ks crew and with my own work. I love the scale of TFT and how it brings in edgier work. TFT gives a good welcome, and the audiences are always so up for all kinds of performance. It’s my kind of house.”

To find out more about Clare, you can find her via her online presence @storyclare or to find out more about the upcoming show ‘The Spanking Goddess and Other Discarded Tales’, CLICK HERE