Ledbury Poetry Festival Goes Feral
Feral becomes the resident theatre company at Ledbury Poetry Festival 2014, sharing poetry through radical routes such as ‘Guerrilla Poetry’, ‘Poetry Massage’ and ‘Feral Pebble Poems’.
About the work
The Poetry Festival team was keen for Feral to find fresh ways of delivering poetry in order to move away from its reputation for belonging in the dusty annals of a chosen few. Not artists to shy away from shaking things up, we were happy to oblige…
Guerrilla Poetry - Feral took iconic poems and translated them into dramatic scripts which were performed in phone boxes, shops, bus stops and the street. Individual lines were delivered through windows, to pedestrians, down phones and to the Ledbury air.
Poetry Massage - We installed ourselves in the Apothecary where we gave one to one multisensory poetry readings to audience members as they relaxed, blindfolded on a massage coach. Which poem they received was determined by a prop that they chose in the foyer.
Feral Pebble Poems – Small stones were decorated with a single line of classic poetry and slipped stealthily into people’s pockets, shopping bags, left on doorsteps, in hedges and on windowsills. All the quotes were chosen to be uplifting and supportive to those who discovered them.
“Transformative”
How we made it
The creative team selected poetry to work with guerrilla-style and workshopped various ways in which lines could be delivered to indicate dramatic relational events. Two willing actors threw themselves into the process, happily reinventing a single poem to be loving, argumentative, childlike etc.
In stark contrast to the guerrilla poetry we rehearsed the poetry massage content to be intimate and nourishing, selecting scents and props that supported the material. The only ticketed element of our partnership with the festival, this event sold out and we had to extend the short run.
Performances
In and around Ledbury during the 2014 Poetry Festival.
“Fascinating and very relaxing. That last poem was a banger.”
Credits
Director – Estelle van Warmelo
Performers – Anja Conti, Jason Marc-Williams
Production Manager – Mina Nakamura