CRAB STEPS ASIDE follows on from the success of The Crab Walks which were performed in beach huts around the region in 2004.

Once again it’s a series of stories about walks and walking, but this time a little more wide ranging: from Combeinteignhead to San Gimignano!

Plus the venues are a little more spacious this time. They have all been chosen because they are places Phil has visited before on his walks, or have views or features which serve the stories. Locations include a cave, a tea shop (with water wheel) and a lido.

Standing room only!

The man behind the madcap shows is playwright, performer and theatre maker Phil Smith, from Exeter.

Last year Phil performed his 50-minute show in beach hut number 3 at Coryton Cove, Dawlish, and then in beach hut R3 at the Point in Teignmouth. The capacity at the Teignmouth 'venue' was just three (the Dawlish hut was a bit bigger - it held an audience of four!).

Phil exlained how the bizarre project came to fruition: "I became interest in exploring places and then doing shows about them.

"Then, in 2003, I spent six weeks walking around the South Devon coastline and visited the places I used to go to when I was a child.

"Last year's show was very simple, about the things I found and the things I didn't find - the things which were there when I visited as a child but which are now gone.

"At the end of it, I thought the obvious place to perform the show was in a beach hut, because I'd passed so many of them on the walk."

Something fishy?

The show was called Crab Walks because Phil found he spent much of the six weeks "walking sideways."

This year the venues are slightly larger

"I didn't keep on a straight line. I kept veering off into all sorts of interesting places, which is why the walk took me six weeks," he said.

All this year's performances in Devon are free.  But given that some of the spaces are only a little bit bigger than last year's beach huts, it’s probably best to reserve a place by ringing 01392 410575.