Release The Hounds Knaresborough
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| The Hounds are watching! |
Release the Hounds Knaresborough is into its second year and
the 3 day event is growing! Last years “in at the deep end” strategy for
organiser Stef Jones certainly looks to have paid dividends, a great venue mix
of pub, theatre , gallery and market place created a sense of adventure for the
audiences, some of whom may have been
frequenting some of these spaces for the
first time!
SpokenWord/Poetry is very much alive around the UK, this
year’s stellar line up of new and contemporary acts is proof positive, the very
best were in Knaresborough to inspire and offer an alternative to life’s so
called certainties!
Most curious local people will have seen The Emergency Poet
doling out poetic prescriptions in the Market place and John Pearsons ‘Inspired
Art’ producing a canine masterpiece! If they were to have looked up they would
have seen last years ‘Replete Hound’ standing guard on the old town hall
balcony!
Friday night at The Mitre!
Ross Sutherland fresh from a triumphant run at the Edinburgh Fringe is
playing to a packed and expectant crowd in the cellar bar! Ross starts off
announcing the chilli’s ready and he’ll be back in an hour! It’s a nice touch
and it’s true, during the meal new friendships are formed, no one is quite sure
what to expect and it’s a particularly well fed audience that greets Ross on
stage, now that the food’s out of the way Ross starts with a film quiz, the clues were
generated by computer program film finder and while seemingly producing random
words it would eventually lead to a movie title, such as ‘Hall’
‘Mirrors’ ‘Detachable-Hand’ which of course naturally led us to ‘Enter The
Dragon’ , the audience were very enthusiastic as prizes were on offer, a CD for every correct answer. Ross explained
how after making his recording he’d enthusiastically ordered 2000 copies most of
which were stuck under his bed, he may
have got rid of another half dozen tonight. The audience were tested tonight!
Ross’s level of dedication to producing his work is staggering it comprises of
computer generated pieces, cut up verse and his use of modern tech even the dictionary
and it produces quite amazing work and
with often hilarious results simply put Ross brought the house down leaving a
happy crowd who didn’t want to go home.
The Fraser theatre studio is a new venue, an enclosed intimate
space and with a pay what you think it’s worth policy after the show! When
entering we were confronted with a long white trestle table surrounded by
chairs, white cardboard model houses and paper snowflakes were scattered upon
the table surface. This was the first of two shows and It was full, Matthew
Bellwood stood and thanked us for coming and said “I’m a storyteller”, the
story ‘An Icy Man’ I can’t remember when
someone actually last told me a story ,Matthew’s clever manoeuvring of on table
models and figures and accompanying props brought the story to life and as we
went deeper into the tale It got colder and everyone in that room was there in
that icy landscape, Matthew had us spellbound for over an hour and at it’s
conclusion the audience let out loud gasps and for some their journey back to
reality was greeted with real emotion, very moving indeed this ancient form of
spoken word was powerful stuff!
Katie Bonna appeared at the Art in the Mill gallery it’s top
room is flooded with light and we are surrounded by beautiful ceramics and
interesting paintings and there is another full house. I had to concentrate on
Katie’s set simply because of the sheer amount of information she imparted,
sometimes I wasn’t sure whether she was performing or talking at times she
looked like she had singled out a particular person in the crowd, they in turn were
nodding not too sure either! Tales of
her underage drinking were hilarious especially as she provided four different
accounts of the same story, her relationships and her missing father were laid
bare seemingly with an underlying sadness but all said with a winning smile.
Her final piece was a reflection of a pupil at a school workshop who’d cried
when hearing a Katie poem, a work that had to be dropped because there was
official concern of a poem being able to open up someone’s emotions, sort of
the point really! I found her set a bit of a rollercoaster but very moving and
there was that smile again!
The final Release the hounds festival act Luke Wright is at
The Hart and it’s packed, the guy has real pedigree, TV and Radio appearances,
host and programmer of the poetry arena at the Latitude festival ,founder of
the poetry collective Aisle16 and tonight appearing as his alter ego the ‘Fat
Dandy’! Luke seems quite taken that he’s performing in a sports bar, he
ventures to the crowd that it may be the first time that someone walking into
this venues gents would has seen a fop putting on his makeup. Luke is actually
looking trim he says the realization of putting things off has finally led to
the loosing of the paunch, however a strange side effect of the weight loss is
his baby-face at 32 years old he’s become king baby and says small children
recognise and gravitate towards him as
their natural leader. Luke’s poetry is very topical and easy to understand as
he recites his verse it like there’s a dozen people performing all at once
everything is from memory characters appear and vanish within the blink of an
eye, it’s truly hypnotising often
hilarious even scary! The only respite not that anyone wants any are when he’s
priming us for his next work, It’s a brave man who talks politics this loudly
in a sports bar Luke is fearless his poetic take on the thorny subject of
Scottish Independence with the poem ‘Better Together’ was very poignant and thought
provoking it had the crowd howling ! Luke ended by telling us he was going up
to Scotland for the referendum he was hoping to see history made!
The years Release the hounds legacy will hopefully be more
of the same next year it showed us difference is to be embraced and perhaps
even showed that this is how life should be lived, next year make sure you’re
in the pack!
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