May 13, 2007
An audience with… is an odd format that predictably always gives an unpredictable evening. The mixture of autobiography and performance, whether from a politician or a poet, means the evening is an intensely personal event. Such a format could have been made for Michael Rosen, whose poetry includes so much personal detail and memory.
True to form, Rosen arrived on stage, rucksack on back and an understated 'hello there!'. We later found out that these first few minutes were spent sussing out the audience. "There were loads of children," he told me, "so I aimed the evening mainly at children". Rosen has rightly earned the reputation of a children's poet for adults, his pithy recollections of his own childhood - for example, his brother mimicking his dad, 'Ne-ver-let-me-see-you-do-ing-that-a-gain!' - had children and adults alike eating from the palm of his theatrical hand.
The evening was a mixture of physical comedy - Rosen brings a new meaning to 'performance poetry' - and autobiography. It wasn't all happy memories, with the poignant mention of his son's death at a young age. Rosen generously put an audience member who asked about Eddie at her ease, "I put myself up here in a public place and there's no reason you should know. Please don't feel bad about it."
Finishing off with some Oxford education, Rosen wondered why so many great writers came from Oxford, giving a brief lesson on Anglo-Saxon (first time I've heard any poet perform any of Beowulf!), the lives of Lewis Carroll, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and Philip Pullman, and commenting on the role of the 'other world' of the university rituals.
Final lesson: odd format + warm, funny poet = an enjoyable evening, enough to make you laugh and cry.
True to form, Rosen arrived on stage, rucksack on back and an understated 'hello there!'. We later found out that these first few minutes were spent sussing out the audience. "There were loads of children," he told me, "so I aimed the evening mainly at children". Rosen has rightly earned the reputation of a children's poet for adults, his pithy recollections of his own childhood - for example, his brother mimicking his dad, 'Ne-ver-let-me-see-you-do-ing-that-a-gain!' - had children and adults alike eating from the palm of his theatrical hand.
The evening was a mixture of physical comedy - Rosen brings a new meaning to 'performance poetry' - and autobiography. It wasn't all happy memories, with the poignant mention of his son's death at a young age. Rosen generously put an audience member who asked about Eddie at her ease, "I put myself up here in a public place and there's no reason you should know. Please don't feel bad about it."
Finishing off with some Oxford education, Rosen wondered why so many great writers came from Oxford, giving a brief lesson on Anglo-Saxon (first time I've heard any poet perform any of Beowulf!), the lives of Lewis Carroll, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and Philip Pullman, and commenting on the role of the 'other world' of the university rituals.
Final lesson: odd format + warm, funny poet = an enjoyable evening, enough to make you laugh and cry.