Internationally renowned poet Luke Wright emerges from his enforced retirement with an infectious thirst for life
3 March 2022
Harrogate Theatre, Oxford Street HG1 1QF
7.30pm £15 07762 159115 www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk
Whether he’s playing master of ceremonies at a Libertines show in front of 5,000 screaming rock fans or reciting Georgian ballads down your local, Luke Wright is adept at taking poetry to places it doesn’t normally go. His poems can be tender, riotous, caustic and romantic and he delivers them with the ferocity and panache of a raconteur at the top of his game.
Now Luke is preparing for an extensive tour the UK in 2022 with an all new show of poems. The tour will visit the length and breadth of Britain, from The Channel Islands to Scotland and is coming to Harrogate Theatre on 3 March, Grimsby Docks Academy on 4 March and Halifax Square Chapel Arts Centre on 20 April.
In the show his deliciously funny poems are set against a backdrop of pandemic politics, ageing parents, and an endless, droning culture war. Wright throws a squat party in his ‘poor old heart’, featuring a cast of murderous swans, sozzled devils, and the people we most want to protect.
For over 20 years now Luke has toured the world to perform his flamboyant, political and riotously funny poetry. In March 2020 that all came to an enforced halt but now he is ready to fully emerge from this temporary retirement with an infectious thirst for life. But what kind of life? And does it bear any resemblance to the one he had before?
Luke said:
Usually I spend much of the year touring around the world so the pandemic lockdown’s gave me time to reflect more and think about how the pandemic has affected people from all walks of life. After so long It’s going to be a thrill to take this new collection of poems on tour.
No less a personage than Patti Smith praised his ‘cool poems’ and Carl Barât of The Libertines said ‘Luke is one of the greats. A poetic pugilist. Beguiling and hypnotic.’
With an international reputation as a leader of the spoken word scene, Luke Wright is one of the UK’s most riveting spoken word performers. His poems are delivered with dynamism, intensity and charisma. Keenly personal but always inflected with irreverent humour, his poetry is always based on his life – as a poet, a father and a son. He is acknowledged as one of our top poets and one of the principle architects of the now thriving UK spoken word scene.
In 2020, when mostly confined to his home he was dubbed ‘the bard of lockdown’ by The Daily Telegraph for his marathon stint of 100 consecutive nights of online shows. These attracted daily viewing figures of up to 10,000.
His latest book, The Feel-Good Movie of the Year is out now from Penned in the Margins. He is the winner of a Fringe First, a Stage Award for Acting Excellence and In May 2021 he won a richly deserved third Saboteur Award, for Best Spoken Word Performer.
