Sorrel Wood delivers her verdict on Baily Theatre Company’s contemporary production…

poetry regained | poetry ruined | pathos and "porno"
startling and effective | enjoyable and intelligent

Poetry, grunts and moans
The initial atmosphere created by Bailey Theatre Company’s Poetry Regained established the performance as a concept which delighted in juxtaposition. The use of the intimate and old St. John’s Chapel setting contrasted with twentieth-century background music and contemporary thrust staging signified the blend of styles and periods inherent in the piece. The seating did not anticipate a large audience but the forty-strong turnout was encouraging and there was a definite buzz before the start of the performance.

In the programme, director Rebecca Udy expressed her vision for Poetry Regained as “a desire to bring poetry afresh to a new audience.” The refreshing treatment of poetry, exploratory and at times deliberately irreverent, and presented in a format that was both accessible and challenging in my opinion achieved the director’s aim. The use of Louis MacNeice’s Prayer before Birth as the opening poem, with a split delivery between the five actors, reinforced the idea expressed in the programme of the performance as a process and original creation.

The publicity posters, featuring the cast in moody model poses, suggested that the production team was marketing the performance as drama and the presentation of the poems was principally dramatic: the performance included personifications of poetic personas, physical comedy, poems punctuated with a multiplicity of incoherent noises such as grunts and moans, naturalistic conversation and soap-opera style liaisons. However, the tension between poetry and theatre was left unresolved and the fact that the two genres are so compatible and at times interchangeable was vital to the production’s success.

Poetry ruined
The different styles of poetic delivery were extremely varied, with short extracts versus more extended recitations and an extremely fast-moving performance with cinematic scene changes (at times the actors struggled to keep up with the pace and literally raced across the stage, arriving slightly later than the lighting cues).

The production highlighted the importance of rhythm in poetry with a comic disco scenario, which used Tom Bristow’s DJing and garish flashing green lights to suggest a nasty location. Minimalist costume changes, such as tinsel and plastic policeman hats, immediately established a disco setting and in-your-face comic mood. The attempted recitations of Yeats’ Tread Softly and Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVII, deliberately read badly and failing to impress the girls onstage demonstrated misuse and misunderstanding of poetry and the scenario was repeated like a refrain three times during the performance. Part of me was shocked and offended at seeing such famous, albeit clichéd love poems ruined – which I think was Udy’s intention. The appearance of humorously oversized books alluded to poety’s unique status as teetering between oral and literary traditions: a status exploited in a performance of the spoken word. However, it was clear that the actors were not actually reading from the books, but had memorised the poems which detracted from the effect slightly.

Pathos and "porno"
Highlights of the performance included a Pablo Neruda recitation in Spanish by Sophie Bicknell with over-enunciated vowels in a school assembly scenario, featuring Bicknell as the teacher reading to a group of bored school children, which evoked enthusiastic laughter from the audience. Yvonne M. Fee’s Four o’clock Fantasy initially appeared to stage Sophie Bicknell’s seduction of Mark Quartley, but she pushed past him instead reaching for a chocolate éclair and the sexual energy made a simple idea extremely effective. Michael Umney’s reading of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses in the style of a Shakespearean tragic hero was performed with great pathos and the presence of two silent onlookers gave the scene symmetry and a sense of the regal.

In the performance of Anne Sexton’s Red Roses Udy’s costume change into a blue dress initially appeared pointless but gave a sinister edge to the poem when it became apparent that she represented the “blue lady” in the poem and the fact that the poem was written from the abused child’s perspective but performed in character as the abusive mother gave the delivery pathos and complexity. This colour motif was developed by using lighting to create blue shadows onstage. The same effect was repeated in the second half with Udy running down the aisle in a pink evening gown which was then referred to in another poem.

The female voice in a discussion of “porno” was also effective in provoking discussion and the fact that Sophie Bicknell performed the poem sitting on chair, trapped by men standing around her gave the delivery an oppressive and ominous edge. However running off at the end took the idea one step too far making it seem histrionic; perhaps the poem would have appeared more sinister if she had remained trapped in the chair.

Startling and effective
Udy’s choice of poems represented a wide range of styles and periods with the essential Donne, Shakespeare, Keats and Auden complimented by more unusual choices and modern classics such as Larkin and Wendy Cope, although of course any poetic selection will inevitably provoke argument: where was Wordsworth or Milton? The ordering of the performance was particularly clever, with thematic links between poems, for example Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress (Had we but world enough and time/ This coyness, Lady, were no crime) was followed by Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Sonnet 02: “Time does not bring relief; you all have lied” which gave the performance fluidity.

The intimate thrust-staging space was well-used by the actors throughout the performance and the actors occasionally impinged upon the audience’s personal space which gave intensity to the poetic delivery. I particularly liked the decision to move the performance to the other half of the chapel after the interval, which was set up in more traditional rows with a stage space at the front, as it enhanced the solemnity of Umney’s Ulysses recitation. The use of the balcony was startling and effective and although the torch spotlight was a necessary tool considering the technical constrictions of the chapel it was also effective in creating a haunting atmosphere.

Poetry Regained was well cast as the actors’ ranging heights, accents and vocal attributes contributed to the colourful nature of the performance. Sophie Bicknell demonstrated beautifully articulate diction which contrasted well with Rebecca Udy’s more softly spoken delivery. Michael Umney’s was droll and he often used a tone of dry sarcasm which resulted in understated comedy and contrasted with Ben Salter’s more lively intonation and energetic gesture, while Mark Quartley’s casual physicality and confident grasp of the language gave him great onstage presence. Throughout the performance the meter was not allowed to dominate which resulted in a conversational enjambment similar to the effect created by Shakespearean verse. r />
Enjoyable and intelligent
Poetry Regained was a thoroughly enjoyable and intelligent exploration of poetry although in my case it was preaching to the converted since I am already somewhat geekish in the poetic department and I fear this was true of most of the audience. Such a performance could be taken to local schools where it would perhaps have more of an impact. In the programme Udy writes that “in choosing to present the poems dramatically we are aware that we are imposing our own interpretations on them” and I was aware of this subjectivity throughout the performance, for example the onstage presence of the elusive mistress persona in To his Coy Mistress cemented it as a seduction poem, perhaps more dramatically viable, as opposed to a philosophical lament to the transience of youth. Like a film adaptation of a novel, Poetry Regained did the visual imagining on behalf of the audience.

In my first Introduction to Poetry lecture Professor O’Neill urged us to familiarise ourselves with the language of poetry: read it aloud, read it to yourself, read it in your bedroom. His plea for students to become immersed in the beauty of poetic language was met by Rebecca Udy’s sheer love and enthusiasm for poetry which permeated the direction and performance and made Poetry Regained really sparkle.