Cry Freedom – Turning Poetry Into Performance

Yes, Poetry Lovers,

You assumed correctly. Cry Freedom on Sunday was indeed a huge success. Playing to a huge and receptive audience, our words were heard and appreciated. There was a strong atmosphere on and off stage.

For a full review, PL’s. Click this link to the Mark Aspen website http://mark aspen.com. Or if you’re looking to stay on board, you can hear this great interview with Anne Warrington, Cry Freedom’s co-creator.

Interview with Anne Warrington

Turning Poetry into Performance

Heather Moulson

Thanks for coming on the show, Anne and well done.

So, how did the production of Cry Freedom come about?

Anne Warrington

… a spin off from our Anthology, Poems for Ukraine, which in turn was a response to Russia’s invasion and occupation of parts of Ukraine. Many of us throughout the world were aghast when on Thursday, 24^th February 2022 television footage was shown of cruise missiles crashing into buildings, and of Ukraine’s civilian population being terrorised and killed by explosive weapons.

As stories filtered through of people fleeing their homes and taking refuge into other European countries, including the UK, our poets at Poetry Performance felt that they would like to do something .

Not unsurprisingly many poems were written about the conflict, and a good number of these were printed and published in our Anthology, Poems for Ukraine, the profits of which have been sent to British-Ukrainian Aid. During the compilation of the Anthology there was a lot of discussion about the concept of Freedom, which in turn led to our production, Cry Freedom.

Heather

How did you and Ken Mason compile the script?

Anne

In many ways this was the easy bit. Once all the poems had been sent, I was able to categorise them into subsets. I supplemented content with other pieces already known to me and which I very much admire, namely Edwin Muir and George Orwell. These writers, I consider are visionary, and their works embody the political structure of a number of regimes of the times, and which are still recognisable in today’s world. Once I’d selected the poems, I was able to link them through the use of narrative,

Heather

How difficult a task was it to select the poems and relevant material?

Anne

No, this wasn’t difficult. In many ways I was spoiled by choice. There were so many good poems sent in. The biggest challenge was in having to reject poems, not because of content or structure, but because I needed to put a limit on the number of poems I could use. If truth be told the poems that were selected were those poets who quickly prompted to my request, providing they had a strong performance element to them and that some of them would be suitable for choral performances.

As we are talking about challenges, Heather, another was in selecting the performers. The extract I used from 1984, for example, is quite lengthy and needed a strong actor with theatrical experience to perform it. Luckily we were blessed with the inclusion of Francis Abbott from the Richmond Shakespeare Society, who not only is an extremely good actor but has a phenomenal memory: he can switch off from one major role and then almost immediately put his mind to another as he did in this production. We were also blessed with other actors who have strong theatrical experience such as Sue Bell, Keith Wait and Sam Ball, who was just wonderful as one of our main presenters. Other poets and performers have what I would call, a natural flair for performance such as Nathan Haisley, Dilly Orme, Andrew Evzona and you, of course, Heather.

Heather

There was quite a lot of music in Cry Freedom. How was this managed?

Anne

Again I was very lucky in that I was able to call on the musicianship of Ian Lee-Dolphin, Annie Morris and Suzy Rowland. Ian and Annie also play guitar. I would say that their inclusion and performance went a long way in making the evening such a success. Ian now has access to an electric guitar and although at first it afforded me a few headaches, once he’d gauged the volume, his playing was electrifying.

Heather

What was it like co-directing a production?

Anne

At times this was a challenge for we both have different approaches to directing. Ken works from what I would describe a clean slate, a bit like Stanislavsky and his method of acting whereas I tend to have a lot of things worked out beforehand. Both methods of course work. However, I was extremely mindful of Ken’s very long experience in directing and in this production he succeeded in creating some really imaginative blocking that aided the subtext of the poetic lines, thus helping to fucus the audience’s attention as for example in the incarceration scene. I learned a lot from working so closely with Ken on this production

Heather

How did you feel about the final result?

Anne

Well, to be honest, the final dress rehearsal, apart from a few performers, was pretty ropey and I just wanted to go home! But to my absolute delight the final result, I thought, was pretty good and I think there’s no better way on finishing this interview by letting a few performers and members of the audience have their say:

“Thank you so much to Anne and Ken for bringing us all together for such a thought provoking and entertaining performance. It was lovely to perform alongside you all, I really enjoyed the whole experience.” Dilly Orme

“Wonderful time, thought–provoking poetry and stories all with meaning emotion and often sadness but with hope for a better world. What an amazing day I’ll remember you all what you performed.” Barbara Lee

“I really enjoyed Cry Freedom yesterday. It was a thrilling, fast moving and diverse performance with much to enjoy. It was great to see so many old friends from PP having such a good time performing. The poetry was very high in standard. I obviously enjoyed the music parts as well. All that hard work in rehearsal definitely paid off..” Clive Rowland

“I just wanted to say how much I (and a friend) enjoyed yesterday’s event – thank you (and all your team) for your hard work putting the varied programme together and ensuring that it was a real ‘performance’ of poetry. And such a good, appreciative audience!! Margaret May

Heather

… and future plans for Poetry Performance?

Anne

Well, I’d like to do another poetry walk, they are great fun but the next bigger theme I have in mind is titled God’s People!! More about that in the next month or so.

Heather

Well, don’t keep us in suspense too long, Anne. That’s very exciting news. Thank you so much for giving us such an insight into a great production, and very well done.

Here are some images from backstage….