I’ve had a really interesting and challenging 4 star review from Exeunt. Colin Bramwell asked some pretty searching questions about my show but concluded: “Wright could well be the most relevant poet of this generation, which, despite some of the issues I have with the material, makes his show perhaps the most important of this year’s Fringe.” Which was nice.
I take Colin’s point that much of the material is really about England and not Britain. Though I would argue that the issues dealt with in the poems are pretty universal. I say that a poem such as Dudley Livingstone isn’t just about “hating Tories” – the fact that Dud is a Tory isn’t really relevant, it’s a poem about what you can and can’t in public life. It’s about the hypocrisy of the media and the shallow way the electorate engage with politicians more than it is about having a go a posh people. The Brungers is nothing more than having a go at posh people, but I don’t really make any apology for that. Something like that is just an exercise in style, that’s all I ever really wanted to do with that poem, which is why the Keats section comes after it. Not all poems have to be making a new point, some can just play with something we already know. Anyway, it was a great review and I’m pleased to have the work engaged with in that way.
So, anyway, I have an extra show on this Saturday night. We’ve been selling so well that The Underbelly have let us do an extra Cynical Ballads at 23.55 on Saturday 27th August. Tickets are on sale now from the usual places.
Also, I’ll be hosting an curating a free poetry gig tomorrow (that’s Thursday 25th August) at The Cow Cafe featuring John Osborne, Tim Clare, Martin Figura, Helen Ivory, Tristram Fane-Saunders and possibly Hannah Walker and Chris Thorpe whose show The Oh Fuck Moment just won a Fringe First. Cool. The gig is free and runs from 7-9pm at The Cow Cafe at The Underbelly on Cowgate.