For the people who take sly peeks at their watches, even when listening to a favourite writer, this performance will be a revelation. It is no monologue; the hour is gone before you know it. Here are three poets all at the top of their game, in a lively and entertaining evening.
We start with Colette’s ‘Nature Table’, on which the child places the few simple objects it has collected, and reflects on the little-understood experiences it has had while gathering them. These encounters include seeing the old couple looking at the You Are Here board; we met them again later.
To get to here, each poet describes the journey they had to take when they moved away from backgrounds which were often far from helpful or sympathetic to the need to write. Daljit’s ‘In a White Town’ uncovers the embarrassment of a child living a life split between two cultures – that of England, outside the house, and the one at home in which his mother preserved her Indian background. Colette’s wish to escape from the cultural and religious divisions of Derry is just as strong as Daljit’s and her ‘Full Indian Rope Trick’ – a wonderful image - neatly links them together. Jo has to cope with the more subtle obstacles of English middle-class reservations. We are never left in any doubt, however, of the value of these early experiences and of the enduring family ties.
The story – and it is a narrative, rather than a poetry reading - is told with a simplicity which, for all the colloquial language, has subtlety, sensitivity and humour. The performers take us through the pleasures of relationships and love in a variety of locations - the car wash, the bedsit or at the back of the corner shop, after the newly-weds locked the door when business was slack. There are wonderful examples from Daljit of the malapropisms created by difficulties with a new language: cardigan/ cardiac arrest, odour toilet/ eau de toilette. And life’s little problems are no clearer exemplified than in Jo’s ‘Mad Cow’ poem.
There is the sadness of separation, of growing old – the bother that Jo’s aunt has with her crossword – and finally death. It all seems to revolve around Colette’s ‘Poetry Bug’, the ‘moon-pale lumpish creature’ that has bitten us all and brought us here on the evening.
Finally, we return to a second reading of ‘Nature Table’ but this time, it is not about the child’s experience, but that of the old couple and the images they have collected along the way. This is where we go from here, assembling our experiences on our own nature table.
Any reservations arise on reflection, rather than from an awareness at the time that affected the great pleasure given by the performance. The chairs are used as props and provide the sort of activity one might associate with a stage production rather than a poetry reading, but they sometimes create a distraction. Better they were fixed and the “actors” moved round them. And why not go the whole hog? Give it the full stage performance works: remove the scripts. Holding a book leaves only one hand free for expression and the face – so important - can be distracted away from the audience to the page.
This was the third show, with another eight to come, on a national tour which lasts until the end of April. It was an evening that the full auditorium at Northern Stage 2 thoroughly enjoyed and will savour for a long time.