In October 2024 Nikki & JD’s Fireside show came to Buckinghamshire, combining storytelling, daring acrobatics and real fire! Reminding audiences what it is to be afraid of the dark…

_{Don’t build the fire too high, sing too loud or laugh too heartily because he’s out there and he’s hungry…}

The award-winning circus company Nikki & JD in collaboration with Lost Dog created an outdoor show that combined circus, dance, theatre and live music to re-enact the original horror story…the one about the monster, and the monster’s mother, and the dragon and the hero and the severed limbs. Dark, comic and physically dangerous, a modern re-telling of that ancient epic, Beowulf.

Fireside lit up Buckinghamshire’s ancient routes, towns and landscapes. The show was presented at Downley Common, Buckingham Church Green and Wendover Woods in partnership with Parish Councils, Forestry England & Downley Common Preservation Society.

A celebration of Buckinghamshire’s outstanding locations

Downley Common

Buckingham Church Green

Wendover Woods

Inspiring and exhilarating. The literary walk gave me some new ideas for reading and the Fireside performance was breathtaking.

Workshops, walks, music and storytelling accompanied the Fireside events. At Downley Common School and Buckingham Library children’s author Ruth Quayle ran Monster Spells workshops with over 200 children. Will Burns led a literary walk from Wendover Village to Fireside, The Le De Spencer Pub hosted folk duo Smith & Brewer who greeted walkers following Fireside on Downley Common.