Like with many
things, I didn’t really know what to expect as I was walking into the
Bridgewater Hall. It could go two ways; be really dull and boring, I would be
struggling to stay awake and people would be messing around, causing mayhem.
Or, I would be engaged and interested, filling pages and pages with useful note
as my classmates did the same, asking mind blowing questions. I think the day
fell into a happy medium.
The trip down to
Manchester was pretty good; the coach was fairly quiet and pretty comfortable,
although as we neared the city I found myself being cooked on the spot by the
radiator next to me. The venue itself was fantastic, a modern reception,
with clean carpets (always important) and the hall was amazing; a huge organ
down at one end with rather a lot of pipes, with the stage set in front. Surrounding
the stage were a few seats, but the majority of the seating was in front of the
stage, with 3 or 4 tiers surrounding the floor seats. We were on the 3rd
tier, to the side. The view would have been better had there not been barriers
directly blocking my line of sight. There wasn’t much leg room either. But what
was more important was the acoustics, (which were pretty good), as the event
was based around listening, and all you really needed to see was the leaflet,
handed to us upon entry.
 |
| The stage from our point of view. |
The first two poets
on stage were Gillian Clarke and Carol Anne Duffy, both of whom read poems
featured in our GCSE Anthology’s.
I have to say, when
Carol Anne Duffy started with Hour,
after giving a brief explanation of her ideas and inspiration, I was a little disappointed.
Her voice was toneless and dull, making her sound bored and uninterested. It
was definitely not how I expected her to read her own poem. She read Quickdraw too, and it was the same
again; she was almost lifeless on the stage. I don’t know whether it was
deliberate or due to nerves or what, but it didn’t sound great. The poems were
fantastic, and as we have ‘exploded’ them in class, I understood them better
than other people may have done. I would have thought this would give me an
advantage over the other students who hadn’t studied the poems before, but the
performances really didn’t deliver. I, unfortunately, found the same thing with
Gillian Clarke, although she had better rhythm when reading her poems, and
sounded at least a little interested in her poem.
Simon Armitage was on
next, and I have to say I enjoyed him and his performance considerably more
than the opening poets. He was rather sarcastic which, I think, drew me to him
a little bit. His poems and the philosophies and inspiration behind them were
rather sentimental and personal, I found. He used designs close, or personal to
him, and made it obvious, which I liked. At the same time, he was also rather humorous
and casual, like he was engaging in a conversation with his audience, rather
than talking at them. When he was reading, he still sounded a little bored and
dull, but overall, I rather liked him. Imtiaz Dharker, the fourth poet, carried
on with the dull tone, although her voice was different too; she spoke slowly
and steadily, patiently, and when she was reading, her voice was kind of
haunting, subtly lingering on words, on sentences. I think she surprised us all
with her final poem - she shared a semi-Indian poem (I think), which she
described as a happy poem. She was much more animated when reading this poem, adding
interest to her routine, and a little humour too, I suppose. Andrew Forster
made an appearance too, although I haven’t made any notes on him; I didn’t really
find anything noteworthy about him, if I’m brutally honest. He followed through
with the leaden tones, and his performance was not particularly impressive.
Tony Childs, the
examiner, had some useful input, however. He read the ‘Unseen poem’ through
twice, and helped us understand it more by reading through the 3 responses in
the leaflet too. He was open and honest,
and although it wasn’t a performance and more of an interlude, I enjoyed it and
found it useful, something to remember when I’m sat in my future exams and
controlled assessments. The final presentation of the occasion was by far my favourite.
John Agard, ‘interesting, quirky, engaging, funny, loud, passionate and
animated’ is the list of words I jotted down whilst watching this man. And he
certainly was all of those; he moved away from the podium a little from time to
time, and jumped up and down during one feature, something which none of the
other poets did. Although he didn’t make complete sense 100% of the time, he
was the most enjoyable to watch and to listen to, and he carried something
about him that just livened the day up marginally. He finished with a small
address on the use and importance of language, and one line stood out to me particularly:
‘you cannot escape language’. I don’t know why I found this so striking…
perhaps it was the truth behind it?
Overall, the day was
rather enjoyable, with the definite highlight of Mr Agard at the end of the
day. He parted with the line ‘happy life to you’, which put a smile on my face.
He was such a happy little man, and that made me happy.
 |
| Hannah and Chloe enjoying themselves. |
