Metamorphosis review at Bournemouth festival 2015

Ben Johnson’s first poetry show is a philosophical dialogue on creation and robotic life. We meet Herbert who’s life has such an impact on a curious boy, it inspires him to create intelligent robotic life. Johnson’s narrative is personable and gripping as we follow our young boys Shelly like journey on the death of his uncle and his thwarted desire to said uncle back to life. We move into a brief history of robotics and  on to a personal views for and against robots.

Johnson’s show is engaging and full of multi-layered interlinked images. His delivery wouldn’t be out of place on Radio 4, Click or as a television documentary for Sky Arts. The set has functioning robot Ozymandias, a robot Johnson build himself over the time he created the show itself. The body parts were printed out on a 3 D printer and Ozymandias brings the future world and its robotic challenges to life. Johnson shows us singularity in an operating robot when Ozymandias speaks in the show.

His poems range from straight forward free verse narrative to biting satirical ballads which chilling list poems about the rights or lack of rights of robots. The show is interspersed with video clips that juxtapose or support his narrative.

His dry humour also subjects T.S Elliot to the Turing test. The conclusion is hilarious. His tackling of human morals and how they apply to robots via Christian creation myth is a fascinating display of Chinese whispers on an ethical level. 

Johnson’s future after he educates us about the uncanny valley, is to show us a world that first embraces then rejects robots. There are fascinating parallels to human rights history such as the robot taking the bus and the bigoted results. ‘No Robot’ remains my favourite piece listing everything a robot cannot do such as own a cat. Johnson pushes us to think beyond our limited view of machines.

I was interested to see how Johnson was going to present his show. He isn’t a theatrical performer and reads his poetry. His clever work around, reading from a book, which just happens to be a bible, works very well because he works hard to maintain his eye contact and engagement with the audience.

Johnson’s show is so rich, I would be happy to see this show several times, to fully absorb and appreciate all the varied views and points he puts across. My only challenges were he needed to slow down and leave gaps between his links and the actual poems to give the audience time to digest the rich tapestry of ideas and images he presents. We also needed the robots voice to be louder, the venue competed

On a personal level as a poet Johnson’s poetry is so finely crafted it makes me want to be a better poet.  Two of us have decided to write or finish writing our shows and have a live reading in April. This is the effect a good work of art can have. y I have a deep interest in robots and robotics and Johnson’s offering is an excellent interesting humane addition to the debate.

Review Archimedes Screw Show case 14/3/14

Review Archimedes Screw The Art House Southampton 14/3/14

I’ve been away months so it was good to see what was happening in Southampton.  The regulars and the new open mic poets have lifted their standard. Next time I will be pushing my poetry envelope because the two winners of the local poet section, Ben and Azra were clearly head and shoulders above an open mi, full of polished and emerging poets. They all had very solid material. The topics ranged from death of children, death to Ukip to celebration of the Art House itself.

What’s also changed is the depth of prizes offered to the winning poets. It  has expanded. As an Archimedes Screw champion you can win a paid gig with Apples and Snakes 451 show but there are other opportunities that are being offered. The extra offerings such as Bournemouth’s Verbal slot make it worth a rural emerging poet’s time to work at winning the local poets section.

Jnz Hart MCing was relaxed and she navigated the heckling home crowd with poise. Her raw urban poetry has made her someone to watch, now she is someone to hire for your festival.

Deana Roger, the evening’s guest poet, has an impressive CV. She is a founder member of Chill Pill. The last Chill Pill guest was amazing and Deana didn’t disappoint. I was charmed by the way she threw out her planned set and recreated a set around the inspiration of the open mic poets. “I’ll have that,” I thought, because it’s a great compliment to the poets who inspired the audience but didn’t win the local poet prize. It edifies our community.  Her performance was relaxed and powerful and I am interested in seeing her one woman show. The exert needed a touch of polishing but it was raw from first draft. Her concept is fascinating and Deana has the stage presence to take us all the way to the shows end.

Finally, Syd Meats is one of my favourite Southampton poets and so is Angela Chicken. It was tough to vote. Syd has a fabulous library poem which I hope he commits to video because it’s an anthem felt by a lot of people suffering library cuts. His show was witty, at times silly and he held the audience in the palm of his hand. 

Angela’s set had some old favourites and I was taken with her IKEA poem. Her set has developed from the personal to the political in her own subtle way. She was worried that she would depress the audience but she captured a mood we are feeling about austerity and injected humour into difficult subjects. So she won the paid gig at 451.  

However Syd’s day is coming and I hope he comes back again because this is Ben’s second try for a paid 451 gig. Steve Larkin will be guest poet in May 9^th and I am going to be there because he is presenting a remake of Hardies Tess of the D’Urbervilles for the modern age.