{"id":20260,"date":"2024-10-25T18:17:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T17:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/satellite.mmu.ac.uk\/northernquota-old\/?p=20260"},"modified":"2024-10-25T18:18:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T17:18:10","slug":"review-manchester-literature-festival-carol-ann-duffy-and-john-sampsons-earth-prayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/satellite.mmu.ac.uk\/northernquota-old\/review-manchester-literature-festival-carol-ann-duffy-and-john-sampsons-earth-prayers\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Manchester Literature Festival – Earth Prayers with Carol Ann Duffy and John Sampson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Poetry icon Carol Ann Duffy and talented musician John Sampson have been performing together for 20 years, combining their skills to create magic on stage year after year. After watching them at HOME Theatre in Deansgate as part of the 2024 Manchester Literature Festival<\/a>, it\u2019s easy to see why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their latest show, Earth Prayers,<\/em> showcases an anthology of nature poems, edited by the former Poet Laureate herself, accompanied by Sampson performing various brass instruments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show opens with a musical demonstration from the funny and larger-than-life Sampson. He introduces his various instruments from the well known trumpet to a goat’s horn with an ethereal sound – like something you\u2019d hear from the hobbit – and a name, Daisy. He ends with an almost mediaeval fanfare from the cornetto (not the ice-cream, the horn), introducing Duffy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poet launches straight into the anthology which she delivers liltingly and purposefully. The audience is immediately entranced and hangs onto her every word, looking around the crowd you can\u2019t spot anyone not staring up at her. It suddenly becomes very obvious why the anthology is called Earth Prayers,<\/em> it feels like we are all praying or casting a spell together, with Duffy leading us all through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sampson plays alongside on the recorder as she finishes the poem Blackbird,<\/em> a melancholic and masterfully played tune. He then launches into stories about his friend and poet, Norman MacCaig who is featured on the anthology, recalling fondly what an \u2018incredible character\u2019 MacCaig was before honouring him with a reading of his featured poem, Toad.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duffy continues her readings of the powerful poems from Earth Prayers,<\/em> captivating the audience once more before reading a sestina, a poetic form in which the six words at the end of the lines of the first verse are weaved throughout the poem. This sestina, A Formal Complaint<\/em>, is particularly PG with the help of Sampson and his word suggestions – “arseholes, gatekeepers, chancers, tossers, bullshitters and patriots”. The poem, written in 2016 as part of Duffy\u2019s Sincerity<\/em> collection, is a hilarious and biting political commentary and the delivery from the duo cements them as a fierce pair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tone shifts when Duffy reads her poem, Liverpool<\/em>, written the weekend of the Hillsborough disaster and finished over the last 20 years. The poem is a beautiful commemoration of the victims and is accompanied by Sampson on the recorder with a melancholic rendition of the Liverpool football anthem \u2018You\u2019ll Never Walk Alone\u2019. The combination of Duffy\u2019s words and the aptly chosen song brings tears to eyes in the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the poetry is moving and Duffy never loses the attention she so naturally commands. After reading her last poem, Postscript,<\/em> Sampson once again and for the final time, plays the words out. His stirring performance of \u2018Hallelujah\u2019<\/em> on the trumpet is beautiful and shocks the audience when they are encouraged to join in for the chorus of Hallelujahs. The soft chorus of audience members singing, becoming more confident with each turn speaks to some sense of community that poetry and music invokes in us all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poetry icon Carol Ann Duffy and talented musician John Sampson have been performing together for 20 years, combining their skills to create magic on stage…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1882,"featured_media":20261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4975],"tags":[1746,108,5833,4262],"class_list":["post-20260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-carol-ann-duffy","tag-home","tag-john-sampson","tag-manchester-literature-festival"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReview: Manchester Literature Festival - Earth Prayers with Carol Ann Duffy and John Sampson - The Northern Quota<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thenorthernquota.org\/review-manchester-literature-festival-carol-ann-duffy-and-john-sampsons-earth-prayers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Manchester Literature Festival - 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