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The dates of the next two events are 15 March and 26 April - both Mondays, with the April event being somewhat later in the month than usual.
February’s event was something of a poetry special, with our guest author, Niall O’Sullivan, reading a selection of poems that ranged from an ode to the dying institution of the greasy spoon caff to an account of the attempts of a once-famous ventriloquist to cope with the drudgery of a normal life. Within this work we find authentic characters unpretentiously portrayed. These are frank poems; ‘Come on in,’ they invite, and so we do – into Niall’s humorous, well-observed worlds, where a homo erectus on the Northern Line quickly learns the survival technique of staring at the floor, and an unlicensed cab driver dreams of his true destination. Many thanks to Niall for a lively and entertaining reading.
Our supporting readers included Daniel Bourke with his short story ‘Seaweed’, a colour-consciously visual, Apple-inflected, Russian-accented narrative. Tara Basi’s extract from her novel Battery Boy offered a confident introduction to a ruined, Ozymandianly trunkless future world, full of human longing and terror, where two boys scavenge for food and the values of friendship are redefined. Glenys Grant’s poem ‘Dead Daffodils’ was a gentle and lyrical piece about a child’s love and a father’s grief, gently and meaningfully delivered.
Emma Dunton read two short pieces, ‘Vinegar Alley’ and ‘Love Walk’, about destinations, how we get there and the stories we encounter along the way, displaying writing that was both poetically evocative and philosophically enquiring. Next up we had three poems by Esther Poyer, ‘This Sky’, ‘Georgetown Girl’ and ‘Fruit Cake’, the last about a cake brought all the way from Guyana, the smell of the Demerara cane keeping strong within it, wonderfully real, highly descriptive and well-delivered.
Our final reader of the night was Xavier Leret, with a bold story about a dying man’s remaining desires. ‘Turn the Porn On’ was an original piece of writing, steeped in sensuous longing and showing a deft control of humour, sex and compassion.
Our thanks to everyone who contributed to the occasion - our readers, our hosts at RADA, and especially our audience, for their generous donations to Oxfam - and our apologies for the absence of podcasts this month.
We look forward to seeing you on 15 March.
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Oxfam charity number: 202918 |
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