British Tea Party + Round'ere @ RADAR2012

My favourite part of what I saw of RADAR2012 was Thursday's sneak peek, bringing two of the highlights of the last Bush Bounce, Hollie McNish and Katherine Pearce, back to the Bush stage to astound us with the power and beauty of words.

British Tea Party

Hollie McNish is more used to performing in pubs, clubs or tea-rooms, where she serves up poems with tea and cake, than theatres. However, her dramatic poems seem perfectly at home on the stage. I'm not usually a big fan of poetry readings, but Hollie gives a real performance, bringing every word to life and reading with all the force and emotion that went into writing them.

This selection of poems are all related to tea in some way, but they are by no means sweet and fluffy. Addressing British mores, fears and loves, Hollie's poems have a particular focus on questions of immigration and colonial history, urging us to be welcoming and accepting, and reminding us that nothing is pure. Hollie also condones the desire to sexualise children by making grown women dress up in school uniforms and eat cupcakes. "I'm proud to be a woman", Hollie affirms, and we all cheer. In all of her poems, Hollie speaks so much sense, and the fact that she does it with such artful words and rhymes is all the more impressive.

You can listen to Hollie's poetry here.

Round'ere

Katherine Pearce is a familiar face to me from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Ever since I first saw her in O Go My Man I knew she was a talented actress, with an incredible warmth, but I wasn't prepared for the force of her writing. 

Round'ere is a touching, personal, portrait of North West England: prejudice, lack of opportunities, and hatred of Thatcher, contrasted with the creative wealth of the region. Katherine fired words out like a slap in the face but with such hypnotising rhythm that it was easy to get lost in them. The aesthetic quality of Katherine's poetry is in striking juxtaposition to the sorry state of a vulnerable young woman alone on a park bench. Just beautiful.

Katherine is busy filming with the BBC and will be at the National Theatre in January for Simon Stephen's Port. I look forward to seeing a lot more from her soon.