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Ms. Shipton's Travelling Tea Shop

a Skadi’s Symphony production

Cover art for Ms. Shipton's Travelling Tea Shop. A black and white ink drawing of a cat poking its head out of a large tea cup, adorned with symbols representing characters in the show, as steam rises gently into the air.

We’re travelling through the English countryside in the first Local Files Club release, Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop, a five-part audiodrama from Skadi’s Symphony starring Greta Clarkson as the eponymous witch. Best known for their series Kane and Feels, Skadi’s Symphony brings its unique take on witchcraft, tea-brewing, and cats to Local Files Club for our inaugural release.

Purchase Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop on Bandcamp

Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop follows the adventures of a tea witch who breaks down in the small village of Talford. As she waits for her van to be repaired, Ms. Shipton sets up shop and meets the locals—a farmer, a publican, and a priest—exploring themes of loneliness, companionship, and queerness through five vignettes.

This audiodrama is presented along with a bonus poem, five commentary episodes from the creators and stars, the soundtrack by Oliver Morris, and original art by Rosie Shooter and Stardust Mansion.

“Ms. Shipton started at a kitchen table with my friend Greta,” writer and director Oliver Morris writes. “As she flitted around the kitchen making tea, I was glum, exhausted from a day in the audio mines. Suddenly, this brew was put in front of me that healed my soul.” From there, the idea for Ms. Shipton started percolating—excuse the pun—starting with a 30-minute drama titled simply Girl in a Van. “If it wasn’t for Amber Devereux, the piece may never have surfaced again.” Inspired by Devereux’s Hello Earth, a tiny audiodrama distributed via .zip file between friends in the know, Morris dug out the original script for Girl in a Van and took another crack at it. This time, Morris wrote “shorter episodes, with a greater emphasis not on everyday problems, but the more esoteric, like grief, guilt, and love.” Finished last year, Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop was originally distributed as an audio zine. The Local Files Club release marks the first time it has been available for wider listening, featuring brand new, never-before-heard bonus materials. “I love Ms. Shipton. It’s short, messy, and weird. I wouldn’t have it another way.”

PRAISE FOR MS. SHIPTON’S TRAVELLING TEA SHOP

“Sharp, punchy, tons of fun. Doesn’t overstay its welcome, leaves you wanting more.” - Conrad Miszuk (Kakos Industries)

“Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop is nothing short of a modern miracle—a unique, charming audio picnic basket delivered to your ears, begging you to brew your own cup and enjoy warm sips as you take stock of the fun goodies within.” - Jeff Van Dreason (Greater Boston, The Perfect Sentence)

“No-one does tone better than Skadi’s Symphony. Ms. Shipton takes the gentle comfort of Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series and adds the quirkiness of a CBBC show about witches. It is deeply affirming and melancholy and full of characters trying to heal after generations of trauma. It is a jewel box of an audio drama with so much depth hiding underneath its svelte runtime. Listen somewhere quiet and warm, preferably with a cat.” - Amber Devereux (Tin Can Audio)

TRACKLIST

Disc 1 - Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop

  1. Episode One: Misery
  2. Episode Two: Farmer
  3. Episode Three: Publican
  4. Episode Four: Priest
  5. Episode Five: Hero
  6. Bonus: The Day Gran Died

Disc 2 - Reflections on Ms. Shipton

  1. Reflections on Misery
  2. Reflections on Farmer
  3. Reflections on Publican
  4. Reflections on Priest
  5. Reflections on Hero

Disc 3 - Original Soundtrack by Oliver Morris

  1. Opening
  2. Fields of Gold
  3. Bedlam Prologue
  4. An Orchard
  5. Casting Spells
  6. The Fires Burn
  7. The Hero Prepares
  8. Leaves Change
  9. Bedlam
  10. Bonus: Bedlam (Ms. Shipton Mix)

Bonus Materials

  1. Zine by Rosie Shooter
  2. Tapestry by Stardust Mansion
  3. Recording script
  4. “Girl in a Van” script (early version of Ms. Shipton)

CREDITS

Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop is a production of Skadi’s Symphony

starring
Greta Clarkson as the Girl
Karim Kronfli as the Priest
Erika Sanderson as the Publican
Lou Sutcliffe as the Farmer
Jon Lily as the Hero
and
Jude Hodgson Hann as Misery.

Sound design by Oliver Morris and Jude Hodgson Hann.
Written and directed by Oliver Morris.
Original music by Oliver Morris.
Cover art by Rosie Shooter.

Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop is LFC-001.

ABOUT SKADI’S SYMPHONY

Skadi's Symphony have been making world class independent audio dramas for the past eight years. The team consists of writer and historian Jack Fitzpatrick, sound designer and director Jude Hodgson Hann, and composer and producer Oliver Morris. They are the creators of Kane and Feels, a horror noir audio drama, The Lightning Bottler, an experimental prose and poetry anthology helmed by Morris, and the upcoming Tales of the Cog, a fantasy anthology set in a world of Fitzpatrick's creation. They are also the two-time winners of the biannual Silver Sounds Sonic Dash. Like the genre authors at the birth of the radio medium, this three-person core team have worked with collaborators to use speculative fiction to explore the human experience. Through horror, fantasy, urban magic, and other such imaginative soundscapes, they've made stories and characters that have resonated with over 150,000 podcast listeners all around the world.