EPIC! is our inspirational and entertaining ‘story of poetry’. A lighthearted look at what poetry is and what it has meant over the last 3,000 years. It is a 60 minute dash through the history of poetry from Homer to Carol Ann Duffy with slides, music, drama and comedy.
A review of our performance at Cheltenham Ladies’ College
LiTTLe MACHiNe presents “EPIC!”
Surfing the centuries in our literary TARDIS we bring you 3,000 years of poetry in ONE HOUR…
We begin with the Greeks, 900BC, EPIC poetry and Homer’s Iliad,
“Sing Goddess of the Anger of Peleus’ Son Achilles and its devastation which put pains a thousandfold upon the Achaeans”
Enter Sappho and the ladies of Lesbos with ‘lyric’ poetry of love and longing, to be accompanied by the lyre.
We’ll shed a little light on the poetry of the Dark Ages and take a butcher’s at the Anglo Saxon bloodbath that is Beowulf with more than a little help from Seamus Heaney and a false beard,
Medieval melodies abound with tales of troubadours, mystery plays, Middle English and a load of old ballads whetting the appetite for a dose of coarse Chaucerian sauce and a trip to hell where we examine the contents of the Devil’s own rectum…
A headlong rush through the glory days of Shakespeare and the convoluted conceits of the Metaphysical masters finds us in the 17th century where Paradise WILL BE Lost and before you know it we’re cuddling up with the Romantics, everyone loves the Romantics: Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron, Coleridge, Keats… and we’re going to find out who is the most romantic Romantic… there can be only one winner and if you want to know who, you’ll have to come and see the show…
… but there’s more, the Victorians will amuse, the War Poets will move,
…discover the freedom of Free Verse, why we are forbidden to play T S Eliot and why we’re going to anyway…
Follow that with the sexual revolution and something for the kids with fistful of filth from Philip Larkin and bing, bong bang up to date with our poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy
The complete history of poetry…
…and home in time for tea
That’s “EPIC!”
‘Your band is sick!’
‘What a brilliant way to get kids into poetry. Really funny and sharp’
‘I totally get the history of it all now.’
Please contact us if you would like more information or to book us to come and perform at your college/school, poetry society, book launch, literary festival etc
We performed ‘EPIC!’ at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Emanuel School, at South London’s Herne Hill Festival, Sheffield’s ‘Off The Shelf’ festival and the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature in Dubai.
If you are interested in having us perform “EPIC!” at your school, college or poetry event please contact us.
‘EPIC!’ at Dulwich college – LiTTLe MACHiNe performing ‘Adam Lay yBounden’