Review by: Paul Towers, 04 October 2017
Upstairs Word presents Jasmine Gardosi & Hannah
Swings
Upstairs @ The Western, 4 October 2017
“Upstairs at The Western continues its love affair with the
spoken word.”
Upstairs at The Western continues its love affair with the
spoken word with a monthly night of poets and performance artistes.
Tonight we saw Hannah Swings supporting headliner Jasmine
Gardosi.
Hannah’s poetry is largely autobiographical but slightly enhanced
for effect (so she says!). By day she is a teacher trying desperately to infuse
enthusiasm for history in fifth and sixth formers in Birmingham but by night
she performs poems on such diverse subjects as ladybirds, her Mother’s obsession
with recording the minutiae of her life to colour psychology. This amusing
Brummie is a an alumna of Jasmine with a completely original outlook on life.
Jasmine Gardosi is an award winning performer and tonight
presented her very first scratch show. This simply meant it was still a work in
progress.
Performed under the guise of a teacher suddenly being thrust
into a class to fill in and take a sex education lesson, this combined humour
and education to challenge our perceptions of sex and sexuality. While most of
it was informative I did find it drifted a bit far into sexual politics for my taste.
But then, maybe we should be confronted with uncomfortable subjects.
I have to admit I learnt quite a few things that I have
never had to think about before. Given my lifestyle choices I am glad I will
never have to consider a lot of them. I realise now how easy and uncomplicated
my life is.
Upstairs Word is back on Wednesday 1st November with Toria Garbutt & Shruti Chauhan while Find The Right Words hosted by Jess Green is back on Weds 18th October
First published at Western Gazette
and Pub Theatres
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