This Review is from August 2022
Poet, Luke Wright, announces that he’s forty years old, though he tells us, he still gets asked for ID on occasion while buying wine.
In truth he is older and wiser, and he likes to explore new ways to challenge himself while writing. Oulipo (or OuLiPo), were an Avent-Garde French-speaking literature clique founded in the 1960s. They were an anti-surrealist movement, who believed that to truly free the artistic temperament you must place your work under massive constraints. These constraints, force you to go deeper into your subconscious, and you get to a greater artistic truth. “Which sounds good, doesn’t it?”
Wright’s favoured constrained writing technique is Univocalism (a poem using only one vowel letter). So, he recites a poem where each word contains the letter ‘O’ and no other vowel. Story told most good too. (I managed five words; Wright did three minutes.)
Later he performs a poem following the same rules using only the vowel, ‘U’. No easy task and the highlight of the show.
We also have stories and poems on the alleged Essex lion, Wright’s school nickname The Big Gay Face, a poem inspired by bird murmuration, and an emotional ode to his dad, who used to make clocks but now spends his time hating Nicola Sturgeon.
Tonight, Wright’s audience range from hardcore poetry fans, to people who have wondered in off he street. He’s able to take this mixed ability room and connect with everybody. And everybody leaves this Luke Wright poetry recital enriched, having had a great time, knowing that we are a little bit cleverer now, than we were when we went in.
Martin Walker
New interview with Luke Wright
Tickets for Luke Wright’s Late Night Dance Floor Fillers (Poems)
Tickets for Luke Wright: The Remains of Logan Dankworth
Tickets for Dr John Cooper Clarke – I Wanna Be Yours (featuring Fascinating Aïda, Stewart Lee, Luke Wright and guests)
