Poetry – Cultivated

Ella Frears

James Goffin — Thu, 22 May 2025 21:30:55 +0000

I have a new poetry crush, and her name is Ella Frears.

Rachel Long

James Goffin — Tue, 20 May 2025 23:57:05 +0000

There was a moment before Rachel Long’s penultimate poem that she took a beat, and you could almost hear the calculation being made: should I do this one?

Luke Kennard

James Goffin — Wed, 22 May 2024 23:17:48 +0000

Poetry can challenge, reinterpret, and entertain, and Luke Kennard’s does all three.

Deception Island

James Goffin — Wed, 25 May 2022 21:30:29 +0000

In a world of multiplexes, films on phones, and on any number of other devices why not watch one in a replica 1950s Antarctic scientists hut?

Workout!

Nathalie Colvey — Mon, 16 May 2022 22:21:35 +0000

Poetry isn’t known for being one of the more gruelling art forms. But performance poet Lewis Buxton has brought his trainers and exercise mat, and he’s not afraid to break into a sweat in his compelling show about a youth spent trying to outrun obsessive thoughts.

Electrolyte

James Goffin — Sat, 15 Jun 2019 14:42:11 +0000

This show did not have an auspicious start – six performers milling around the stage, sharing in-jokes and nattering away – but appearances can be deceptive.

Voted Out

James Goffin — Thu, 17 May 2018 15:05:26 +0000

What can politics teach poetry? That was the question posed by Tim Clare and Mark Grist at this unusual verse meets votes show at Norwich Arts Centre.

Rear View

James Goffin — Thu, 25 May 2017 19:01:49 +0000

This IOU Theatre piece definitively gives a new perspective on life: for most of the show the audience are watching from the back of an open-top bus.

Francesa Beard

James Goffin — Wed, 18 May 2016 21:01:39 +0000

When it comes to artifice, how much more fake can you get than a review of a show about lying?

Fierce Light

James Goffin — Wed, 18 May 2016 17:54:14 +0000

Poetry has long been associated with war, and this collection of poems and films adds some thought-provoking additions to the canon.

Nobody Told Me

James Goffin — Tue, 17 May 2016 17:45:05 +0000

To those that allege that the Norfolk and Norwich Festival is all middle class indulgence, Hollie McNish is the answer.

Stand By For Tape Back-Up

James Goffin — Sun, 11 May 2014 18:14:16 +0000

It’s strange the things we can get nostalgic about: for Ross Sutherland, it’s the humble videotape.

Don Paterson, Sophie Hannah, and Hannah Lowe

James Goffin — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:37:24 +0000

Poetry evenings can be rather somnolent affairs, but at this one a gauntlet was thrown down: be harder on poetry.

Carol Ann Duffy

James Goffin — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:58:07 +0000

This visit to the Norfolk and Norwich Festival by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy was a homecoming of sorts, sponsored as it was by The Rialto – the Norfolk-based poetry magazine that was one of the first to recognise her talent thirty years ago.