We Are Poets, Why Do You Stand There in the Rain?

Inky Fingers are first up in this week's trawl of the inbox. We Are Poets is a film about six Leeds teenagers as they prepare for the world’s most prestigious poetry slam – Brave New Voices, and Inky Fingers are putting it on next week. 

At the end of the evening, they are having one of their usual open mic sessions. Since the film has been called a moving insight into freedom of expression, the North of England and the slam poetry scene, it's expected that the open mic might have a touch more heat...

While I can't agree with Screen International's comment that the film "should be mandatory viewing" (critics really seem to be mistaking themselves for the school dinner lady these days, telling everyone to eat up their greens), it has won a few awards so far:

Winner Youth Jury Award, Sheffield Doc Fest 2011

Winner Best Documentary Award, Darklight Festival Dublin 2011
Winner Goethe Film Prize, Berlin Zebra Film Festival 2012
Winner Audience Award, Univerciné Film Festival 2012
Official selection, Guadalajara International Film Festival 2012
Official selection, Bradford International Film Festival 2012
Official selection, New Zealand Doc Edge Film Festival 2012
Gala Presentation, Leeds Young People’s Film Festival 2012
Official selection, Sottodiciotto Film Festival 2012

The screening will be followed by a wildcard Open Mic, running 9.30pm – 11.30pm! Come along, add your name to the hat before or after the film, take your chances for 5 mins on the Inky Fingers stage!

Why Do You Stand There in the Rain? is my second find. Peter Arnott is one of Scotland's finest writers - the recently revived White Rose  is a storming critique of gender and collectivist politcs - and this show was commissioned for the 2012 Fringe. And although the company, Pepperdine University, are from the USA, they have made it back to the UK.

Apparently, their campus is in Malibu. They must be serious about the play of they are coming here from there.

Fair enough: Arnott takes up the story of the  Bonus Army March of 1932 on Washington DC: a kind of prototype occupy movement, in so far as it represented a spontaneous uprising of the dispossessed. The press release explains:

20,000 ragged and desperate First World War veterans and their families from all over the U.S. set up ‘Hoovervilles’ around the nation’s capital, to lobby Congress for the early release of a promised compensation package for services in the First World War. Congress voted no and Hoover called upon MacArthur and Patton to drive the veterans out of the capital. Armed with bullets and tear gas, 1,000 infantry and cavalrymen pushed the veterans out of Washington DC burning everything they owned.

I am inclined positively towards political theatre that looks to the past. First of all, it's a reminder that the state has been messing about with its citizens for quite a while - and Arnott is especially skilled at capturing the way that the Big Issue impacts on the personal. It has the added bonus of not being an attempt at explaining recent events before the dust has really settled: no co-opting of last week's news for this week's cause. 

And it has got tunes from Woody Guthrie, Bessie Smith and Leadbelly. 

TOUR SCHEDULE

Friday, 31 May Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Saturday, 1 June Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Monday, 3 June Òran Mór, Glasgow
Tuesday, 4 June Òran Mór, Glasgow
Thursday, 6 June Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock
Saturday, 8 June Aros, Portree, Skye
Sunday, 9 June SEALL at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye
Monday, 10 June Lochan at Dornie Hall, Dornie
Tuesday, 11 June Eden Court, Inverness
Friday, 14 June Mull Theatre, Tobermory