The fabulous London Word Festival is back for a third year with its most adventurous and jam-packed line-up to date.
The London Word Festival returns for a third year of lexicon-laced celebrations of the spoken and written word with a stunning line-up of word-smiths and the well-versed. This year's festival, running from 7th March-1st April looks set to be the best yet and boasts an eclectic bill encompassing everything from music to stand-up, shadow puppetry to performance poetry, and even the odd screen-printing nun. And we can't wait.
So if you have a penchant for puns, you're a Scrabble enthusiast or you just like the occasional dose of wit and repartee, catch this year's Word Festival events at any one of the eight venues across town. It's hard to pinpoint highlights in such a veritable line-up of goodness but here goes...
Self-improvement project One Hundred Days to Make Me a Better Person is an anecdotal comedy of inventive pledges starring Josie Long and it looks hilarious. Performed in a Secret East London Venue, the piece follows Long on her one-hundred day mission to make everyone a little bit of a better human being.
Over at Toynbee Studios, The Chip Shop, a screen printing workshop set up by Henningham Family Press looks highly intriguing. For the price of a bag of chips, you can have a word of your choice prepared, screened, inked, dried and wrapped in newspaper to take away. Either submit your own words, or if in need of a smidgeon of inspiration, peruse the 'catch of the day' board. Most curiously, all words submitted will form the basis of the 2010 Festival Poem performed on 31st March by poet, performer and broadcaster Ian McMillan, who's been given the daunting task of writing the special chip shop poem.
Lovers of crime fiction and comic books take note – the Avant! Noir event on 12th March is distinctly darker in tone. Feast your ears on music from the likes of Bristol jazz-rockers Get The Blessing, and Mercury-nominated Led Bib who are set to take to the Art Deco stage at Toynbee Hall.
Murder, mystery and suspense is provided by crime authors Toby Litt, Ray Banks and Cathi Unsworth together with impacting, graphic visuals from on-line noir comic Huzzah! Ghost stories Oh, Whistle and I'll Come To You, My Lad and A Pint for the Ghost at Cable Street Studios also look spine-tingly spooky.
On Saturday 20th March, Darren Hayman joins forces with the Henningham Family Press, the Universettee, and Murray Macauley for a micro-festival celebrating the good and the great of British posters in Keep Printing and Carry On, while over at Courtyard Theatre, Stuart Silver's world-view-quashing comedy, You Look Like Ants premieres. As the festival draws to a close, magic is scheduled to descend thanks to the shadow play, animation, puppets and poetry of Matthew Robins and Terry Saunders in the true Art of Storytelling, and things end with a bang as the Barbican Art Gallery hosts a night of poetic word play with special guests John Hegley and the Found in Translation poets.
This isn't even the half of it: there's plenty more besides – for the full programme and to book tickets, we suggest you check out the London Word Festival website. Performance poetry, ghost stories, anecdotal comedy and screen printing: there really is something for everyone. There's even a Scrabble Sunday!
The London Word Festival is on from 7 March - 1 April 2010.
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