The evening is hosted by Polly Tuckett and Seb Ahmed who bring us life readings and some music and imagery during the breaks.
It's a great set up, big round tables for the audience to relax at while the readers are on stage. There are plenty of breaks to replenish drinks, stretch legs and discuss what you have just heard. As well as making the evening pass quickly it serves to prevent the stories all running into one another.
October's theme was Halloween.
The first story "Lizzie's Baby" by Emma Lee was a little confusing. My feeling is that it would read well on the page, but the delivery was a little flattened by nerves and the result was that it was impossible at times to tell which character we were with. A shame because what I was able to follow suggested this was not a bad story.
Maxine Linnell then read "Nuts & May". Linnell was a strong, well paced reader, the story somewhat confusing, although that may have been deliberate. Overall not bad but it didn't grip me. In a book a confusing short story can provide additional fun, going over it line by line trying to unpick the meaning, being read to I was left just feeling "I didn't get it?".
After the first break we had something a little different. Dr Jennifer Cooke presented a paper on Zombies adapted from the last chapter of her book. This was a more academic approach and the language matched. With some interesting views, dry wit and a confident delivery this was a real highlight. If you spend enough time around Zombie nuts you would have heard a lot of her insights before, but I learned a few new things and just thoroughly enjoyed a neat introduction to and portrait of the Zombie.
Dr Zombie was followed by the headliner Nicholas Hogg who has been published through CanonGate. He came on stage with a girl who voiced one of the characters. It was more of a performance than a reading. He built tension well and it was very well performed but I found the ending a little disappointing.
Another break and then the final two short stories. Joe Evans read "Ghost" which again was entertaining, well read and interesting but fell a little flat at the end. It was a pleasing delivery though and held a few laughs and some bleakness and creepiness. This is definitely a writer I would be interested in reading more of, just to see.
Last and finishing the evening on a high note was Damien G Walter reading "Cthul-you". This is a tale of cultists, dating sights and destroyers of the earth. It's hilarious. Damien delivered the story brilliantly and left the audience laughing. There are thoughtful parallel's that could be drawn from the story, but I preferred to sit back, listen and laugh.
Overall an excellent, entertaining evening. Well done all.
As a side note, we have short stories by both Polly Tuckett and Damien G Walter here on Un:Bound.
2 comments:
An author reading can improve a piece, like, 1000%. I heard Neil Gaiman read one of his poems at the Weissman(spelling?) and it was FAR better than when I read it in my head. It gives great insight into their minds.
It can hugely improve it, Gaiman is an excellent performer though and that makes a big difference too. :)
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