H'm
here's a different viewpoint, I'd emphasise straightaway that I mean no
offence to cris by this, but to be true I found his piece meaningless. I
notice there are no quotes from it - what I sensed was an unwitting
totalitarianism of 'performance', one was encased in an environment of sound
and image but nothing seemed to be saying anything. Except that some things
were in the past - I've noticed that myself too would you believe. The
blinking lights were physical uncomfortable to me while a friend of mine
from Leicester who was with me for the performance was literally holding his
head in agony at one point - how about that for a critique?
Alison's poem was better, no blinking lights for a start, but I prefer it as
text than performance, she does describe it as a 'rough draft' - I see it as
promising but thematically undeveloped - and the staginess did not enhance
it - Alison shouting 'cunt' at various points nor cris's camp readings of
Middle English didn't add to it.
The venue is a delight, and I was glad I attended, but I don't want to fall
into deference, which is one of the things performance poetry and
multi-media do nudge one towards, the focus is on the personality and
appearance of the poet, rather than the meeting of minds that true poetry
avails one of.
Best
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Leicester, England
Home Page
A Chide's Alphabet
Painting Without Numbers
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Elizabeth James" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 9:33 PM
Subject: Re: svp at scpt
cris mostly stood and read from his laptop, his style of address
modulated across a (for him, relatively narrow) range; but he also moved
about, and at times reading was interspersed with adlib interpolations,
plus at one point a dialogue with Lawrence Upton, in the audience. As
well as the blinky light on the floor, a home movie (children, garden,
rural landscapes) on tape was projected on the back of the stage
throughout the reading (and towards the end, on a small white board
brought close to the audience, so the slightly grainy images became
small and bright, as we were 'served' the past, with improvised
commentary). It felt like a very rich presentation, in other words, and
it ended in medias res -- I'm glad c. thinks this one thing (or idea)
worth keeping -- (if it was really a magazine though I would have bought
it to read again).
Alison Croggon read her 'Specula' poems inspired by (and incorporating
words of) medieval woman mystics. cris assisted her performance and both
readers levelled on a more theatrical register, suitable to these texts,
much of which are 'dramatic monologue' heavy with physical sensations of
suffering and ecstasy. Quotations were read in Middle English accents.
This presentation also used multi-media elements too: sound/music, and
one passage delivered on the computer screen.
So all in all it was a, like, wow! evening at SVP@CPT (and a terrific
final gig for Alison's British & Irish tour!)
Thanks to all.
e
>Hi,
>
>I wanted to give a brief report myself about what i presented at cpt on
>Monday night. Others might have things to say about its effectiveness
but
>this was a useful shift for me in that through force of circumstances
and
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