What could be better in these cold days of coalition than a warm evening of real collaboration between artists at a theatre whose name means ‘something that crosses another’ and whose event title is a terrific pun on this ‘new way to experience poetry’, TraVerses?
Hosted by Jennifer Williams, a poet in her own right, TraVerses is a new idea to platform original poetry that has ‘...a dialogue with other forms’.
There have been two events (Monday 25 October and 13 December) so far and the one I attended let the audience experience poetry with music from Trio Verso: Brain Johnstone (poet), Richard Ingham, (saxophones, bass clarinet, low whistle), and Louise Major (double bass, percussion); poetry with technology from Anita Govan and Dr Rhythm with his Magic Box; poetry as a three voiced play, Timepieces, written by Dorothy Baird and performed by Lisa Nicoll, Catherine Gillard and Liza Shackleton; poetry with four films by Alistair Cook, a collaborative double helix poem by Anne Connolly and Anna Dickie with West African drums by Erick Mauricia and a couple of poet /performers A. P. And Swedo.
While the audience was being entertained with all this imaginative and eclectic talent, a live Twitter poem, linked by Mairi Sharrat, was being created involving a virtual Twitter audience and those in the live audience wired up to Twitter. Very modern, of course, but there is nothing to beat live performance in any genre.
There are a couple of poetry related quotes on the programme, one from T. S. Eliot saying “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood “ and one from Marianne Moore saying “Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.”
Of course, interpretation, even from the erudite, is personal and only some of the work performed fell into either of these categories while some was accessible and very moving. This was an evening of discovery where the realms of the imaginations of mainly amateur acts were revealed to an appreciative audience.
Because of the diverse nature of the evening’s acts, time can be wasted setting up equipment for the following act so it’s important that everyone respects their time slot. One act did not and maybe this will be addressed for next time round.
Look out for TraVerses again in 2011 for a free night of experimental performance and being served by the Traverse’s terrific hard working bar staff.