Talking Performances

A specific kind of performance which explores tropes of public speaking, recitation, reading and introduction, which uses derivation, prolixity, mental association and subverted expectation to make often entirely improvised talking performances or talk-poems.

An attempt to examine the persuasive context of speech, its manipulative and fraught relationship with truth. A tradition, specifically in live poetry, from the 14th century Italian Improvisatori to 20th poet-artists like David Antin.

The performances tend to grow from small gestures around audience expectation into weirder things, explorations of what a live literature is - time, space, human interaction, spoken language. I’ve often used props or situational setups to work these live poems too, like powerpoint presentations, eating, dancing, masks and puppets. 

My talking performances have been commissioned by Tate Modern, Airwaves Festival (Reykjavik) Fokus Lyrik (Frankfurt), IGNOR Festival (Ljubljana), Bucharest International Poetry Festival and Marsden Woo Gallery. The videos of these performances are on youtube with originals currently archived in the National Poetry Library.

On separate pages you can find my