Somewhere Else in rehearsal

Somewhere Else is now going into rehearsal!

The performance will be outside the front of Peterborough Cathedral at 11 - 12.30 in the morning and 3.45 - 5.15 in the afternoon on 13 August.

It is going to be strange hearing it performed by other people, as I am only really used to performing my poetry myself. Also I know that the actors cannot possibly perform the ‘duet’ properly without rehearsal, and so that section is bound to sound terrible at the read through on Tuesday 2 August. With the other writers there too, I suspect that it is going to be an embarrassing evening!

The read through will be the first opportunity to hear what the other pieces are like. I am really interested in finding out what different takes they have on the theme. From what little I have been told, they are going to be very varied.

Somewhere Else is shorter than it was, but denser and with a higher proportion of ‘poetry’ to dialogue than in the first draft. There are still a variety of verse styles from the very formal to the less formal, some smooth, some halting, with prominent but flexible use of rhyme and assonance. Here is a taster of an early section:

The rich have turned away.

These floods are somewhere else –

As far off as Japan,

Brazil or Bangladesh;

Not nearby Burford Drive,

Not Huntsman’s Lodge, next door,

Or here.

Yet these homes are, for me,

So near.

I know this corridor

The waters swirl in; I’ve

Visited in the flesh