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>or at Mandy Precious' recent piece for the Manchester Poetry Festival, >which used both blank verse and rhyme.... not published of course, but it >was a risk-taking and interesting piece of work I'd love to know more about this, Liz. Mandy is a poet and dramatist who spends most of her time working (for minimal pay and with little support of course) with people with learning disabilities and community theatre workshops. Out of that experience she has developed ways of using video...... The Commission for the Manchester Poetry Festival which has run for three years now, allows a small budget to 'bring poetry to the stage'. 'The Big Impossible', Mandy's piece, set the stage in a small open studio space with two video screens and an actress centre stage. The two screens played back fragments from two children - childhood best friends one of whom dies. The woman centre stage voiced the perspective of the survivor. It was a remarkable achievement and a complex piece - at times very compelling to hear the three voices cutting across and amplifying one another in strong brash northern tones. Lots of very rhythmic writing, rhyme, children's song and games, references to tv ads, pop songs and so on woven through and supported with original music. The woman attempting to establish dialogue with the two imaginary girls, asking them to explain, to comfort her. Mostly the three voices simply ran parallel without connecting, but there were some electrifying moments where a conversation seemed to be about to take place....... it was an impressive example of a poet with a really good understanding of theatre, working strenuously with language as performance. There are some moves afoot to get it performed again, I hope they come off, because in the two nights of performance I guess only around 300 got in (most of my friends didnt get to see it - tickets were high currency) I have the first ten pages of script, and have emailed Mandy to ask permission to show it - if members of the list are interested in the chance to see this work and get some better impression of it than I can give. (I am very grateful that this topic has come up, since I am supposed to be working on my own proposal for this year's commission at the moment and this discussion has given me a jolt that I had better get on with it!) Liz