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| LiTTLe MACHiNe |
Last night I went for a walk through poetry from Homer to
Carol Ann Duffy care of the group LiTTLe MACHiNe at Rhythm& Muse at The Ram Jam Club in Kingston. The group, who set poetry to music,
performed their show Epic in two sets.
We skipped through 3,000 years of poetry
history in sixty minutes which included drama and comedy! Some highlights – an extract
from Gilgamesh and Chaucer, Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley and the war poets
(Seigfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen). They were brilliant performers, both in musicianship and
personality.
The group tour around the country (do check out their
website) the visual backdrop to their show includes pictures of the poets and
the words to the poems.
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| Rachel Rose Reid |
The evening was part of Kingston Connections Festival of Stories and included two
poets from the floor as well as Rachel Rose Reid who is writer-in-residence at
the Charles Dickens Museum in London Rachel has performed stories and songs for
Billy Bragg, Southbank Centre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Last night she
told stories from Africa, about Woody Guthrie and about London and Charles
Dickens, somehow managing to slide between the old and new worlds. She has a
lovely voice and recites her poetry and stories from memory. Rachel keeps you
listening (and sometimes participating) because you did not want to miss a
word. The stories were funny and poignant and she is an excellent performer,
knowing how to instantly engage her audience.
The evening was brilliant – a combination of poetry,
stories and music that stay with you on your way home.
(The Ram Jam Club is an intimate setting behind The Grey
Horse Pub in Kingston. Comfy seating, a
glass of something from the bar and there you are, up personal with the performers
– just how I like it.)
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