ROB GEE

THURSDAY 1ST NOVEMBER sees that human catherine wheel ROB GEE return for his third (yes third) appearance at the Word Up! Night. Guess what the theme for the floorspot competition is?

MORE EMMA PURSEHOUSE PHOTOS

EMMA PURSEHOUSE REVIEW

EMMA PURSEHOUSE REVIEWED.
...before I start on the daunting task of telling you what Emma did, I'd like to give a big thankyou to Simone, who
did a marvellous job of compereing the whole evening. I'm still recovering from my operation, and just wanted to spend
the evening huddled in a corner nursing a warm beer, and thanks to Sue and Simone I was mostly able to do exactly that.
Thanks also to the many floorspots, who were all up to the usual high standard, and as diverse as ever.
So, to the task in hand.
To say that Emma needs to be seen to be believed is a massive understatement - it's difficult at times to believe what
you're seeing when you are there. The first set started with her dressed in multilayered and disparate items of clothing,
which were removed one by one with each poem, so a sort of literary striptease if you will, without the nudity. The poems
quickwitted, sharp, bouncy, poignant and funny.
During the interval a bizzarre collection of shopwindow dummies resembling a bad charity shop display was arranged across the stage.
These costumes were to figure prominently in the Magnum Opus which made up the second half, which was a 40 minute
one-person verse-play which placed the traditional Punch and Judy story firmly in the middle of the medium of daytime telly,
on the Jeremy Kyle Show.
As a veteran performer I've noticed that if you perform for more than 5 minutes without having to look at a book or a scrap
of paper you will blind your audience to the wit, elan and precision of your writing with your amazing feat of memory.
(I was sat by Emma's partner Dave who was following the whole thing with a script on his knee, ready to prompt,
but he was happily redundant).
At 40 odd minutes, with scarce a moment to draw breath, let alone buy a drink or go to the lavvy, you're going to put test
your audience's patience and attention span to the limit, but the room was held in rapt attention throughout, so deft
was the writing and skilful the performing. The piece is written to be performed in a proper Punch and Judy booth with
proper puppets, but the booth wouldn't fit into the confines of the Cellar Bar, and it's credit to Emma's improvisation that
the whole thing worked perfectly. It's only the 3rd time this show has been aired Live, which I find incredible. Next time it appears,
BE THERE!

jim harwood