Poetic License

Poetic LicenseA cross-generational performance work about the power and limitations of words, Poetic License is presented by a new company bursting with an authentic Melbourne voice: Outer Urban Projects in association with Footscray Community Arts Centre and Melbourne Writers Festival from 27 August.

A mash up of young and old, ancient and contemporary, classical and street, cajoling and combative, Poetic License takes Aristophanes comic masterpiece The Frogs as it’s inspiration to ask and debate the timeless question – can the spoken word really move and inspire?

Outer Urban Projects patron, the award-winning writer Christos Tsiolkas, said of the company’s work Suburban-Hip Hop Concerto presented at the Melbourne Recital Centre, “I was listening, at the edge of my seat, thinking that this is indeed how the world sounds: hybrid, modernist and ancient, popular and classical. It is a terrific work and the performers did it great justice.”

Outer Urban Projects chief executive officer, Kate Gillick explained that Poetic License is the company’s first foray into the Melbourne Writers Festival:

“Like our patron Christos Tsiolkas, we are smart, bold and have plenty to say about emergent Australia and it’s class, cultural and racial divides – we refuse to be ghetttoised. We are taking our artists and our work generated in Melbourne’s outer north to the main stages for everyone to experience.”

In an Aristophanes inspired salon style underworld, Poetic License is underscored by the harp of Natalia Mann, while lovers of the spoken word are offered an impressive vision featuring an ensemble of writer-performers brought together by Outer Urban Project creative producer and director Irine Vela.

Six decades separate two poets who feature in Poetic License – 63 year old Kominos Zervos rails against the march of time, while 13 year old Dante Soffra takes centre stage with a youthfully exuberant prologue. Other performers include alternative jazz singer-poet Ileini Kabalan; the confronting and moving Mahmoud “Babz” Samoun; virtuosic rapper and beat boxer Kevin “Y2K” Nugara and performance poet Koraly Dimitriadis.

Poetic License
Footscray Community Arts Centre, 45 Moreland Street, Footscray
Season: 27 – 29 August 2014
Bookings: (03) 9999 1199 or online at: www.mwf.com.au

For more information, visit the Melbourne Writers Festival website.

Image: courtesy of Outer Urban Projects