David
Hartley
The Devil's Elbow
<< an evening of music & stories from a haunted valley >>
~ 14th November, Glossop ~
~ 19th November, Todmorden ~
Lights in the skies over Longdendale. Ghosts in the hills along the valley. Strange creatures slipping through the shadows, and the devil lurking at a hairpin bend in the Woodhead Road.
Tales hewn from the dirt and summoned from the rusting edgelands, set to the loops and bleeps of synth occultists. We have gathered stories of local sightings, and we'll hear many more before the night is done.
A one-of-a-kind evening of storytelling and music-making featuring wordsmiths David Hartley & Annie Acre, and the melodies of Rickerly, Vice Vera, & Heaton Norris Light Vessel Automatic.
This will be a seated, 90-minute production that starts sharply at 7:30pm. You can anticipate transcendence, disturbance, restlessness, and disbelief. You can expect rhythm, poetry, discord, and demonic tritones. You may leave with a spirit on your shoulder and the devil at your elbow.
Look to the skies. Look to the shadows. What have you seen?
The Devil's Elbow Website
Tickets: The Globe, Glossop
Tickets: The Golden Lion, Todmorden
// a re:shape x d.a.o.s production \\
.png)
Writer, Performer, Artist, Editor, Tutor
I write strange stories about strange things for strange people. I am preoccupied by animals, neurodiversity, folklore, and untapped possibilities of storytelling forms. I've performed my work within bus stations, ancient libraries, decaying edgelands, a Swedish train station, and among a forest of tattooed bodies. I have collaborated with spectral musicians, Estonian performance artists, and a plant orchestra. I'm always interested in creative partnerships. Get in touch with me below.
~ PhD Creative Writing, University of Manchester
~ Fauna (Fly on the Wall Press) - short story collection
~ Incorcisms (Arachne Press) - short(er) story collection
~ Writer-in-Residence: Tartu, Estonia, 2024: 'The Forest of Ink & Skin'
~ Lead artist: 'The Embassy of Utopia', Festival of Libraries 2024 & 2025
~ Workshop Tutor for 'Beyond the Spectrum' with Writing East Midlands
~ Editor: Obscura: New Uncanny Tales (Comma Press)
~ Former lecturer in Creative Writing, The University of Manchester
Picture: Nic Chapman
Sample Stories
