"Troyanne" / Liberated Words

My latest review assignment for British Theatre Guide was Ian Rowlands’ “Troyanne”, for Company Of Sirens at Chapter. Inspired by real-life stories of accidental family shootings in the U.S. and set in the context of military involvement in the Middle East, it could easily have been a one-dimensional anti-American rant at easy targets; it mostly avoids this, however. And Caroline Bunce is electrifying in the central role, as a bereaved wife and mother.

Yesterday I went to the Arnolfini in Bristol to check out the Liberated Words Festival of Poetry Films – I’d been lucky enough to have one selected for the evening session. The afternoon was taken up with a panel discussion, where various practitioners, mostly academics, discussed their varying theoretical takes on the genre, some of which whizzed straight over my head; in fact, for me, the most interesting films shown in this strand were the most traditional – documentary style adaptations of the works of Bristol-based performance poet David Johnson.  

My film of a Jo Bell poem was part of a highly varied two-hour programme of poetic shorts which concluded proceedings. Some were excellent, others deeply dull. I was mostly relieved that the image quality of my piece – made using entirely free software, and burned to DVD on my home laptop – seemed to pass muster on a big screen.

 

Festivals

I’ve finally managed to get two films into festivals which are happening over the next few weeks, after several years of half-hearted attempts. It helps that they’re poetry films, which is quite a niche area, and that the festivals are both new ventures. Thus, my oblique take on Jo Bell’s poem “The Shipwright’s Love Song”, will be screened during the Liberated Words Poetry Film Festival, which is part of the 2013 Bristol Poetry Festival – my response to a challenge to put images to one of four poems. And I’ve just learned that my visualisation of Wallace Stevens’ modernist piece “Lulu Gay”, has been shortlisted for the Ó Bhéal International Poetry-Film Competition at the Indie Cork Festival of Independent Cinema 2013. Which is very lovely. Both free to enter, as well, which is a bonus – a lesson one learns the hard way.

The only other excitement in my life has been the over-reaction of a playwright to my review of his play. This took the form of a number of immoderate posts on Twitter. It wasn’t even a bad review; it simply suggested that his play was “solid” rather than a work of life-changing genius, as other reviewers have argued. All the more peculiar given that this particular author has been brutally critical of his fellow theatricals in the past.

"The Shipwright's Love Song" by Jo Bell

Successful submission to the Four by Four competition for the Liberated Words Poetry Film Festival; part of the Bristol Poetry Festival 2013. Narrated by the poet.