Tag Archives: Simon Armitage

The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Lee Armstrong, Simon Dutton, Roger Evans, Polly Frame, David Hartley, Ranjit Krishnamma, Chris Reilly, Sule Rimi, Danusia Samal, Colin Tierney, Susie Trayling.

A man is sent on a mission by a powerful leader, a man to whom his days of adventure are said to be behind him and to whom nothing would displease him more than being sent away far from home, sent to a land where the customs and practices are now as alien to him as those who share his national flag abroad. It is a story as old as recorded time itself and yet one that plays itself out over and over again as each generation repeats The Odyssey, duplicates the trials of Odysseus, just in nicer suits and with a flair for diplomatic disaster enshrined into the mission.

The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(565 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Simon Armitage, Walking Away: Further Travels With A Troubadour On The South West Coast Path. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The poet is always looking for new things to write about, new boundaries in which to cross, divide and focus a pin prick in time upon; for to challenge the muse is perhaps the main reason for getting up in the morning and putting the best possible foot forward. This can be quite a challenge when placed against the sometimes firm, sometimes loose under the weight of introspection, of testing yourself against walking from Minehead to Land’s End and doing a poetry performance every night along the way; there surely are better muses than making sure you don’t walk into something unsightly in Devon.

Simon Armitage, Walking Away: Further Travels With A Troubadour On The South West Coast Path. Book Review. full post

(613 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Simon Armitage, Poetry Evening Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Some poets you don’t see on stage in Liverpool from one year to the next. You know they exist by the volume of work they put out, but they somehow get tangled in the poetic mist that separates the city by the Mersey from the rest of the country as they criss-cross placing the truth of a rhythmical full stop in full reach of their fans, but not quite making all the way down to the birthplace of the Mersey Beat Poets.

Simon Armitage, Poetry Evening Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(488 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Yorkshire Poet Simon Armitage Supplies Liverpool With Great Evening Of Entertainment.

Liverpool has more than its fair share of visiting musicians and theatre groups ready to entertain their genial hosts; sometimes there are those that are conspicuous by their absence but the prodigious home grown talent that runs through the very heart of Merseyside more than makes up for that. What is missing is the poets, the speakers of lines with no music attached in which to give the people of Liverpool their other fix, the well placed word in the right place that can topple Governments, bring the idiotic to their knees…or even just put a smile on a face and inspire the next breed of would be poets.

Yorkshire Poet Simon Armitage Supplies Liverpool With Great Evening Of Entertainment. full post

(517 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Simon Armitage, Walking Home. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is always a worry when reading a book by a poet, by someone who you conceive to have weighty matters on their head to the point that the world only really makes sense when viewed through their eyes and through whichever form of the medium takes their fancy. Arguably poetry is the single purest expression of writing and when you consider the greats, the toil they spent making each word convey the deepest meaning can put you off writing anything as you know you can never capture the spirit of someone such as Ginsberg, Hughes, Stevens, McGough or even Simon Armitage.

Simon Armitage, Walking Home. Book Review. full post

(556 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Roger McGough, As Far As I Know. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Roger McGough’s reputation goes before him. A man whose poetry touches all who read, take interest and enjoy the fascinating and humour filled poems. One of the Liverpool beat poets, along with Adrian Henri and Brian Patten, who has inspired generation after generation of the city’s inhabitants and bought the distinctive voice of those people to the wider world.

Roger McGough, As Far As I Know. Book Review. full post

(437 words, 1 image, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)