Cynical Ballads – Luke Wright

Overview

You don’t often see performance poetry sharing the limelight with big ticket theatre and dance acts, but when Luke Wright comes to town the humble ode holds its own. Wright has established himself as one of Britain’s most recognised poets, not least because of his ability to appeal to a wide audience with his laddish style and contemporary sensibility. This week he’ll be treating Melbourne Festival crowds to his singular way with words in Cynical Ballads.

The show features a sequence of poems commenting on the shabby state of modern Britain, interspersed with a tongue-in-cheek history of poetry itself. Acerbic in its satire and bittersweet in tone, combining clever word-craft with artful obscenity and a visual backdrop of darkly humorous cartoons, Cynical Ballads has got British audiences all excited over poetry again since Wright started touring it last year.

Thought balladry was old hat? Wright will make you think again.