Write to Speak - The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright and Helen Mort at Hull Truck - Wednesday 20th October 2010
By Mark Walmsley
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Hull Truck 0 - Luke Wright 30 |
If this had been the cricketer Luke Wright, you would be forgiven for thinking that the headline was a cricket score result between the Hull Truck cricket team and the solitary England Batsman but on this occasion it was worse news.
On his second visit in 2 years to the Hull Truck Theatre, Luke Wright, one of Britain's leading performance poets played to a house of around just 30 people.
Luke Wright is a giant amongst his fellow national performers, has 4 brilliant stage shows all of which played to sold out audiences at The Edinburgh Fringe, got five star reviews and has completed extensive national tours.
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Yet when he showed up on Wednesday night he must have thought that Hull Truck almost forgotten that he was coming.
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Unless you are closely connected with performance poetry and spoken word, Luke's attendance went largely unnoticed around the city. Why? I would say a combination of poor marketing, advertising and wrongly prioritised listings and headlining by Hull Truck Theatre, possibly due to ignorance of what it is they think the public should or want to see.
Luke Wright has not only programmed and hosted Latitude's poetry arena (the largest poetry event in Europe) he is also one of the poets in residence on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live.
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You would have thought that with such a portfolio of accolades, not only Luke, but the Write to Speak events themselves should be given one of the highest priorities and maximum exposure if this City wishes to promote the arts and if Hull Truck's standpoint of being the 'Peoples Theatre' is to be taken seriously.
Events like Write to Speak (a local innovation), if advertised and marketed correctly, would be a sell out on every occasion and for the more notable performers there would be enough interest to fill the main theatre let alone the studio space allotted for such evenings.
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Both Luke and the supporting act, Helen Mort made for a really enjoyable and witty and laugh out loud evening that, given the chance, hundreds of people would love to be part of.
If only Hull Truck Theatre made more of an opportunity to promote it and to bring the essence of performing talents within the spoken word scene to the forefront of exposure to the people of Hull instead of the seemingly begrudging token gesture to just about name their performances on a few lines a dozen pages into their 'What's on' magazine.
On the other hand, what chance does a nationally acclaimed spoken wordsmith have when you have an ex Coronation Street actress playing the main theatre next door? After all there's no substitute for talent, eh!
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It's about time Hull Truck Theatre, backed by Hull City Council, started focusing on both local and raw talent that is awash within Hull City and give these people some support, promotion and backing when they spend a lot of time, money and effort to bring events like Write to Speak to the public, to enthuse and invigorate the very people who are unaware that this sort of entertainment is available in their own town.
After all, it's not only John Godber who can put on successful shows. The Write to Speak events are hugely innovative and are about, for and include the people of Hull and are kept alive on a voluntary basis.
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Maybe it's about time the Hull Truck Theatre started championing what will be an ongoing success story.
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| What's Happening? |
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| Chill Out |
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