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Tues 22nd September 2015 

SARA HIRSCH EXPLODES ON STAGE

First of all, we want to give special Thanks to Richard Gordon for letting us have the space at 'Forks Handle Kitchen', for Write Angle, as our usual location, Square Brewery, is under renovation. We cannot thank him, Yasmin, or Georgia - enough! There was food and drink available all through the evening. And now on with the show!

...If anything ever got our steady handed, video man, David Stone, to comment, it was September's guest, Sara Hirsch;- and as I couldn't say it better myself – here goes!

'She didn't just perform on stage. She exploded. In the audience, she didn't look unusual - but when she got up, she took up the whole space. She was exceptional…. (and if that wasn't enough),... 'If you can go from a one string fiddle to a full musical orchestra, She was the full orchestra!' David wasn't alone. Everyone said she was 'brilliant'. She had a freshness and vivacity... '- the best yet'...(okay, so they've said that before..and before...and…) the audience was gobsmacked over her energy and emotive projection! She made you laugh one moment and feel tearful the next.

As Sara said she'd never been billed as a comedian before, she said she'd start with a joke, get it over with, and then do poetry!

'I Don't Want an Easy Life', told of her wanting it complicated.. to have done everything...have it smack the lving daylights out of her. She wants life to mother her; sweep her off her feet. 'If life really does have a meaning, I want to take the time to find it'....a long convoluted joke, full of mistakes; gritty and difficult to swallow. So awkward, when she gets to the end, she hasn't got the energy to do it again. Her life is funny...with men. She has terrible cocktail skills... Sometimes it's hard but she likes it that way...'. What a poem to start the evening! '
'Deaf Poem' , where everyone thinks she's dying. She's 26 and thinks she can't hear.. Lovely and hilariously funny. Her friends say 'Have you finished your 'death' poem yet, and she says, 'death'? No! It's Deaf, not Death'!!! Then a Haiku. (might have been the joke) – 'I don't like goatees, but if I were a man, then they might grow on me'

From the Edinburgh Fringe, her 'favourite place on Earth' – where she just performed her show, 'how to be a teenager', soon to be toured around the UK..came the poem, 'Unmade Bed'.. 'How was it for you', 'We lay like starfish….I tuck the corners in...I can't make that bed and lie in it. We lay like coiled anacondas. I tell him I like the bit between his torso and his hip. One day he tells me there isn't any romance in general. She covers herself to cover her confusion. Today they are together and perfect….But tomorrow...You wondered how long it would take the penny to drop. The penny took so long to reach the ground, it started to collect interest...Then it took so long, it became a pound...

She portrays relationships...and you feel her pain as she speaks.. 'My Best Friend just got engaged...my best friend is finally growing up..and he will make the best husband...and so will he!'. The audience loved it. Then, 'Play Fair', about monopoly - 'It's not for the weak hearted...If you're going to play, play properly...she went through it – If you mortgage your house you have to pay back but don't worry, if you pass go you can collect £200 – a 'play' on real life and the cruelty of having to give things up because life demanded it...

In her newest work. 'National Gallery', she gesticulates, 'I want the background angels to sing for me'. She'd carry Davinci's unfinished work - Nothing changes. Paintings still hang in galleries and people still visit. I am still as unfinished as I was then. I am an idea...a tragedy of art' ...her honesty and confidence come through and we feel we're her friends as she confides...'I write a lot about myself, but don't worry. I think I'm through my self indulgent stage….I think I'm coming out of it'..(I got the impression she would have been loved, whatever stage she was in)
Lastly, 'Heritage', a long, powerful and very sad poem about 'your beautiful only sister...her haunted smile still – just because you couldn't save her, - if somehow they would have been wiped out in a concentration camp – about the guilt of those still alive. 'if I could say anything to you, it would be this. It was worth the risk.' There were many anecdotes. Sara is a powerful performer 'making no money since she started performing', - but we have little doubt she'll be up there amongst the best as time goes by. I would wager there wasn't a single person in the room who didn't relate in some way to her angers, relationship angsts, and life, in general, with its pains and joys. David got it right! She was 'the full musical orchestra'!

Following that, one of our favourite open mikers, the predictably good, unpredictable John Smith did a humerous monologue, 'In the Beginning'… which involved challenging himself to write a poem that included the 30 most famous expressions from novels, or as he put it, 'hitching a ride on the coattails of other people's genius….'when the clocks just struck 13...'I must go down to the sea again…..a thing of beauty is a joy forever...Hope springs eternal… you may forget what you remember or remember what you hope to forget...life is really simple but we insist on making ...do not go gently into the night. Do not go gently into debt. The price of everything and the value of nothing. Good night'. Very clever and witty. Good applause, as ever!

Munnya (Michael Usuwana) then performed 'Secret Admirer'. 'Maybe one day youll see me as a nice guy..we'll get to see the stars... and in the morning... I promise you babe, we'll never be apart. Her name was Myra... desperate to be closer but I can't deal with emotion and commotion….maybe I need a cigarette...or nicorette...am I correct...The poem seemed to show the confusion between wanting, and being afraid of ..relationships – not easy. Munnya, aka 'Word Maker', now has a manager and his first CD's for sale. We hope he'll bring it with him next time. Keep an eye on this guy!

Richard Hawtree read 'Watling Walking' based on a quotation from Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Poetically, The milky way has been called the Watling Street of the sun. Londoners named it 'Noble Street'. Watling Street. ... to Cardigan. The word is a corruption of Vitellina strata, the paved road of Vitellius, called by the Britons Guet'alin. (okay, so I cheated and looked it up). Richard's poetry is lovely but can be oblique and it helps to have 'Google' nearby...just in case.

Chris Sangster, back from a song festival in Estonia, with over 35,000 people in the choir, wrote, 'Estimar' about how it was under Russia, then Germany - finally free 25 years ago, when it entered the European community. Still a young country but gaining confidence through singing, it created a human chain, hand in hand, through Latvia and Lithuania. Chris' song/yukulele told of 'singing with a single breath' , 'Thinking as One'. 'Estimar...land of our fathers'...a very gentle, lovely song. Then, 'Please Think about Me' . Though life was good, it's time to part. Enjoy each day of living. Problems don't matter any more.' (speaks for itself).

Barry Smith created 'Landscape Poem', inspired by a ballet in Covent Garden. And so we travel 'while bush, stone, fragments of light catch the worrying wings of drowsy curtaining lush shuttered primevil domain...we drift with honeysuckles..we feel the pulse of the sea..while the sky turns purpley blue to pewter... awash with waves of wiry heather - bronze age dwellers...reference to tribal struggle we feel the pulse of the sea...a trinity of transendence…A painting was created! Jake Claret then did 'Her Big Black Dress' about falling in love with a woman in a large shapeless black dress and seducing her in his imagination as he pictures what's beneath. 'The object of my fevered gaze touches me in every way'. Her clothes are like a tent. What he cannot see is more appealing...as his imagination takes over and creates the woman he wants to see. Interesting idea!

Audi Maserati then did 'Frieda' and 'Marsha, first one written in 1973, second in 1982. 'I got extradited from Manchester for being 'ironic'. He told how he'd done poetry fast in the past. Now if he does them that way, his eyes pop out. He then put sunglasses on, 'Clearly an affectation!' Everyone laughed as he proceeded to recite them fast. In his inimitable way, Audi created an image of the times..'They move into a corner and tell each other lies...She said she worked the tills at Tesco. When the night was over….he took her home. His intentions were purely carnal... love and being young. 'One thing about being an 'old bloke' is you can write things in real time' - 'Marsha on the motorway'. Hotels motels...Marsha serving food . Both poems about getting his leg over...when guys talked of girls..when times were wild and wily.

Mike Knee, guitarist, sang Love songs, ' In the office of lost property', and she did dig deep and she found the heart of me'..I love you with every chamber of my heart'. Second was.. 'In the arms of my soulmate, in the arms of my lover. G Rimes then did a poem, 'Yesterday I was pulled over by the cops' for speeding , and then said 'Aint you got nothin better to do...out there are burglars, shop lifters and thieves...my heart felt heartfelt road rage The cops said 'they'd arrested the burglars and shoplifters who said 'aint you got nothin better to do. Arrest the drunks, the speeders...etc...so I'm sorry Sir but now you must consider yourself well and truly nicked'. Very funny!

Bruce Parry shared a project he'd been working on for many years, divided in three parts...using the underground to show the different times and uses, back to the war. 'The 5.30 Underground'….scurry of people….they scamper..sitting, standing, swaying...pickpockets...Next day it all starts again. 'Mind the Gap Mind the Doors'. Platform 2 – going home..dark tunnel, posters peeling down...Central Line. Bethnal Green...Platform 1 Circle, Platform 2 District. 'Wartime Christmas Underground'….same underground...a place to lay before the bomb. Nobody knew the bomb was coming. Wardens shouting. Platform 2...at Bethnal Green...to find a Christmas underground. Wonderfully descriptive. Phyllida Carr then got out her trusty harmonica and everyone sang along as she played, 'Bread of Heaven' and 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'.

Newcomer, Russell Stone played the Shruti Box, and sang some haunting oriental sensual music – in English and 'in the language of love'..'I see a young man killed by war..he has stolen my heart...I see a politican racked by power. She has stolen my heart...then, in his second language, using his voice, a drum and meditative sound, he played his instrument and sang in a ne tonuge. Very calming and rich. He has played at White Eagle Lodge and other spiritual festivals. There was total silence in the room as he projected his powerful and emotive voice…It was a truly good and diverse evening – one of the best yet! First time we had it at 'Fork Handles Kitchen'. Next month, we're back at Square Brewery, hopefully!

The raffle was won by a newcomer who seemed quite surprised and pleased! Two free meals at our local authentical Turkish restaurant, 'Fez' down Bakery Lane behind Waitrose.

Lastly, Leah was invited to perform some poetry at the Chelsea Arts Club, for which she got a free meal. (the most I ever got paid for my poetry!) It's her 3rd year and it was a success. People laughed, and afterward, some asked if she was professional while others said they liked her poems. (she didn't 'fluff' her words, once!)

More to come on Dan Simpson, next month's guest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   
   

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