A new live show
every day from one of the UK’s leading poets
Luke
Wright has now performed over a full calendar month of daily online shows
Luke Wright has performed a live online show via Twitter at
8pm every evening since 19 March (the date of his first tour date cancelled due
to Covid-19)
and plans to do so until we can return to the theatre’s, arts centres and
venues he would usually perform in. The multi award-winning poet has already performed
daily for over a calendar month.
Luke Wright is a spit and sawdust wordsmith. His poems
are inventive and engaging, documenting 21st century British life with wit,
humanity, and panache. He performs a selection of different poems each night
from his extensive back catalogue and is also previewing new material. Amongst his viewers he’s attracting ‘celebs’
such as Shappi Khorsandi, Robin Ince and Libertines Carl Barât and Pete
Doherty. He’s even attracted a patron of sorts with lauded cartoonist Martin
Rowson, a keen fan, providing port for the poet’s consumption during the shows.
A new, ever more exotic, bottle is delivered to Wright’s door each week.
The daily shows can be seen live here http://twitter.com/lukewrightpoet
and stay online until 5pm the following day.
‘Cool poems’ Patti Smith
When the Prime Minister ‘advised’ people not to go to theatres and venues in mid March, Luke was touring his new show The
Remains of Logan Dankworth with dates stretching through to July before taking
up residency at the Edinburgh Fringe. Within a couple of days he had hatched
the plan to deliver online shows from his home in Suffolk.
Each Saturday he invites requests, compiling a set from viewer
suggestions and on some Wednesdays he performs his full length ‘verse-plays’ he
did Frankie Vah on 22 April and The Remains of Logan Dankworth is upcoming on 6
May.
‘human, vulnerable, eminently honest and very, very
eloquent.’
The Guardian (on ‘Logan Dankworth’)
Luke said
‘Immediately after the PM’s first ‘advisory’ announcement the gig cancellations
started to come in. I’d always wanted to do a live
video on social media, but had felt too self-conscious. What if no one watched
it? Where would I sit? What would people think of seeing me at home? But surely
if I was ever going to realise the idea this was the time. The first proper show
on 19 March was seen, either live or streamed, by 4,000 people. Numbers have ebbed and flowed
since (one show attracted 10,000 views in its 21 hour life) but I think it’s
important to keep up a daily show, I’ll keep them going as long as people
keep tuning in. I’ve
already developed a strong regular audience and some have watched every show.’
Luke added ‘I’ve also set up a button so people can
make a donation, and was bowled over to receive money. Actual money!
Effectively busking from the comfort of my own home!’
He is also currently writing a new show of poems called The Ballad Seller
consisting of re-written broadside ballads from Georgian times and so far two
of these have debuted in the Twitter gigs. Another to get it’s
first airing in an online show is ‘Essex Virus’, the latest in his Essex Lion series which looks at the immediate period before the
lockdown was announced.
Luke Wright has
been writing and performing his work for 20 years, touring all over the world.
He is acknowledged as one of Britain’s top stand-up poets and one of the
principle architects of the now thriving spoken word scene. For 11 years he
co-programmed the Poetry Arena at Latitude, Europe’s largest poetry gig and he
now curates poetry for Edinburgh International Book Festival. He has 8 books,
and five (audio) albums of spoken word to his name.
‘Visceral, virile verse…burns with
contemporary political relevance’ The Stage (on ‘Johnny Bevan’)
He is a Fringe
First and Stage Award For Acting Excellence winner He has won two Saboteur Awards and is currently nominated for Best Spoken
Word Performer and Best Spoken Word Show in the 2020 Awards.
Luke is a very entertaining,
witty eloquent and erudite interviewee. Contact Steve Forster as above for
availabilities, and images. Images can also be downloaded from www.sfppr.co.uk/downloads/
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