Oxford Live Literature Arena this weekend!

Just a reminder that it's the Oxford Live Literature Arena this weekend - two amazing days of live poetry and stand-up - at the Rotunda, Grove House, Iffley, Oxford. For full details of who's performing when on Saturday, hit this link to the original POETS ON FIRE blog entry.

For details of Sunday's performances, see below:

SUNDAY 2ND APRIL

12:00 noon - Project Adorno's Cabaret of Curiosities
Poetry to a disco beat. Beat-pop poetry with a vaudeville swagger. the Adorno boys journey through their favourite themes - the smell of old books, love affairs with photocopiers and Daleks. Part pop, part monologue, with a hint of poetry & song. Think Cohen-meets-Kraftwerk-meets-Kylie. U

1:10 - Rhyme and Reason
A joint performance from two Oxford poets with contrasting yet complementary voices. George Roberts and Alan Buckley (2005 Oxford Literary Festival Slam Champion) explore the complexities of personal and political relationships with passion, wit and a shared love for the rich textures of spoken word. PG

2:20 - Sappho in Sainsbury’s
How the first female poet of the ancient world looks at love and loss in the 21st century. What would a lyric poet from Ancient Greece make of our modern romantic confusion? Oxford's 'Sassy Sappho' Sophia Blackwell explores the poet's themes of love, loss, motherhood and women's place in society and the arts. The show includes a Q and A session. 15

3:30 - Mark Gwynne Jones
A journey through the jungle. .. A wild, impassioned cry answered by echoes of a far deeper vocalisation rumbling in the darkness ... alien and hauntingly familiar. Where wordworms rustle in the undergrowth and ideas leap like drunken gnats between the rampant banks of punters neuronium ... 15

4:40 - Beauty and the Beast
This isn't recitation, it's excitation. Alison Brumfitt & Peter Wyton have worked together periodically at poetry slams, festivals (including Glastonbury) and other events for the better part of a decade. 'Beauty and the Beast' is a high-octane mix of performance poetry which they last presented at the Birmingham Fringe festival. PG

5:50 - Jem Rolls
"Dynamic, hilarious, captivating... the pump-action poet"- The Scotsman. A potent brew of humour, lyricism and social comment from the well-travelled Londoner exhiled in Scotland. Described as a "blistering verbal rollercoaster"- Guardian and "Dynamic, hilarious, riveting...A high performance master"- Winnipeg Free Press ***** 2003 ***** 2004 ***** 2005. 15

7:00 - An evening with Nick Toczek
Best-selling author and popular performancepoet. Nick is urbane, wry, bitingly political and self-deprecating, He's also an irrepressible story-teller, stand-up comic and brash in-yourface close-up magician. The Stage said "See him if you can. He's brilliant." New Musical Express called him a "most exciting and visual performer.", and according to Germany's Neue Presse he's "Mr Dynamite" whose "all-round writings explode like a firework". PG

8:10 - McGonagall & Harrold: Yaks 'n' Kilts 'n' Rock 'n' Roll
One witty English eccentric who drinks tea, and one shouty Scottish anarchist who drinks. Following in the footsteps of such double acts as Crosby and Hope, Rogers and Astaire, and Ant and Dec, Elvis McGonagall andA F Harroldbring you marvellous comic literary entertainment for all the family except children, very old people, the uneducated or those who never pick up a newspaper, a book or turn on the radio. PG

9:20 - The Bold and Spiky Poetry Show
Raucous in your face and up your bum poetry fun. Question: What do you get if you cross an acclaimed stand up comedian and former psychiatric nurse with a bizarre acid cabaret worldfolkpunkskiffle singer and former philosophy student, with twenty two year experience of performing poetry and the truth? Answer: A stand up poetry orgasm in the form of Steve Larkin and Rob Gee's "Bold and Spiky Poetry Show". Come! 18

Children under 14 welcome if accompanied by an adult. Creche from noon - 7pm. Refreshments on sale. All shows gratefully accept donations. www.hammerandtongue.org

Part of The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2006


Directions to Grove House from Oxford City centre
Take the High Street east crossing Magdalen Bridge. At ‘The Plain’ roundabout take the third exit (Iffley Road). After 1 mile take the right hand fork (Iffley Turn). The driveway to Grove House is on the left after the St Gregory the Great School.

Buses 3,4, 4A, 4B, 4C from Queen St. or High St. Alight at Iffley Turn.