Drinks With Dead Poets

(This is a past event and is no longer running)

By:
Glyn Maxwell

Directed by:
Michael Oakley

‘A wholly brilliant evocation of a mysterious campus… unclassifiable’- The Guardian

A special staged recital presented by Poetry London featuring Catherine Bailey, Louise Bangay, Rebecca Birch, Aidan Kelly, Wynne Maxwell, Emma Pallant, Joseph Prowen and Glyn Maxwell.

Award-winning poet playwright, Glyn Maxwell, leads an extraordinary cast of characters in this premiere staging of his celebrated novel, Drinks With Dead Poets.

It’s the autumn term: tutoring students in poetry in a mysterious village, Glyn’s world is transformed by the arrival of Keats in a country lane; Emily Dickinson and other poets soon follow on their way to give readings in the humble village hall. And everything they say – in class, on stage, at the Cross Keys pub – comes verbatim from their diaries, essays, or letters.

Glyn Maxwell has long been regarded as one of Britain’s major poets. His books include Pluto, Hide Now, The Sugar Mile, The Nerve, and his recent selection One Thousand Nights and Counting. Several of his plays have been staged in the UK and USA. His opera libretti include The Lion’s Face, The Firework Maker’s Daughter, Seven Angels and Nothing. His novel Blue Burneau was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Prize. He has taught at Princeton, Columbia, and New York University, and reviews poetry for The New York Times. In 2012 he published the acclaimed critical guidebook On Poetry, which considered the art through the eyes of four imaginary students. Their journeys – along with many others – continue in Drinks With Dead Poets.