Stephe Harrop

Contemporary storytelling in performance, training, and research

Stephe sits on the ground, her back to the camera, her arms outstretched, in a pool of light.

Media


Speaking Stone

This video documents a performance I made for the ‘Centre/Pieces’ conference in Berlin, in spring 2024.

Speaking Stone is inspired by the Belvedere Torso, a broken classical statue. It combines fragments of the stories of Heracles, Marsyas, and Ajax, all of whom have been identified as the statue’s (possible) subject. And it celebrates some of the Torso’s most famous interpreters, across different times and places.

Content note: Speaking Stone contains references to war, violence, and suicide, in the context of ancient Greek mythology. It also features images of a nude male statue, throughout.

New Island Dreams

In the days before Britain had been named, they were the first to set foot on the island. Sisters. Refugees. Shipwrecked and storm-weary. Seeking a new land. New lives. New dreams.

These two new storytelling films fuse medieval poetry with contemporary spoken-word performance, inviting you to step into the mythic tale of the first queens of Albion.

The films also create space for your own imagining of landscape and history, with prompts for flash fiction and storytelling activities to share.

New Island Dreams was created as part of Being Human Festival 2021.

Alcestis: In Bits

Inspired by a lost Greek tragedy, Alcestis: In Bits is about breaking up and breaking down. The losses that leave your life shattered, and the painstaking work of picking up the pieces. Queens and gods, broken crockery and late-night phone calls collide in a fusion of ancient myth and modern experience.

This digital storytelling project (filmed on my kitchen floor in self-isolation) was premiered in December 2020, in collaboration with Manchester Classical Association.