A Twist Of Rotten Silk Or Words To That Effect

By (author) Shakespeare Okuni
Short description/annotation:
Thirty-three mesmerising poems that fuse Shakespeare''s elemental language into haunting new configurations of vision and voice.
Description:
Old and new, serious and absurd, tricky and electrifying. A book of words, words, words, for actors and directors, playwrights and poets, readers and speakers. For Shakespeareans and Anti-Shakespeareans and Non-Shakespeareans. A sequence of epilogue-and-prologue-like eleven-line paragraphs or poems or stanzas. A monologue of monologues. A stream of consciousness. 
Review quote:

‘Unclassifiable. Classify under poetry, theatre, Shakespeare.’ 

– Carolyn Lloyd Davies, Playwright, Artistic Director of Living the Drama, Oxford. 

 

‘The poems shake Shakespearean fragments into shifting, prismatic patterns. Lines separated from the hum of dialogue are revitalised in shimmering new assemblages.’ 

– Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford. 

 

‘I love the idea of all the contradictions held in trying to begin something. And the idea of picking up a mangled matter and making a dream. In these pieces, the feeling of someone trying to express themselves from a position that feels impossible came across to me very powerfully.’ 

– Jane Fallowfield, Literary Manager, Royal Court Theatre, London. 

 

‘Superb! The line “I will play. I will say nothing. I will see what I can do” in I Will Begin really jumped out at me for the modulation of phrases and the juxtaposition of heightened and everyday language – it’s a mesmerising effect used so well in these poems.’ 

– Luke Kennard, Poet, Professor of Creative Writing, Birmingham. 

 

‘Surprising and haunting.’ 

– Stephen Greenblatt, John Cogan Professor of the Humanities, Harvard. 

Biographical note:
Shakespeare Okuni practised with Footsbarn Travelling Theatre and the Werdyn Gypsy Horse Circus before running away from the circus to act out and direct in England, France, Ghana, and Lebanon. He is the author of Black Box, a play for the actors of the National Theatre of Ghana, and Mabinogion, a libretto for string quartet, flute, and storyteller. With The Dreaming Chorus, a series of devised theatre workshops, he is developing a new piece drawn from William Shakespeareʼs unsettled plays.