Shakespeare Okuni - A Twist Of Rotten Silk
Schedule
Sat, 18 Apr, 2026 at 02:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
58 Newton Road, SA3 4BQ | Swansea, WA
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One for all the Shakespeare afficionados - A Twist Of Rotten Silk.Come and enjoy a poetic experience/book launch with actor and theatrical director Shakespeare Okuni.
Shakespeare Okuni practised with Footsbarn Travelling Theatre and the Werdyn Gypsy Horse Circus before running away from the circus to act 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.
“Surprising and haunting.”
– Stephen Greenblatt, John Cogan Professor of the Humanities, Harvard, and 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner for The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
“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
“Unclassifiable. Classify under poetry, theatre, Shakespeare.”
– Carolyn Lloyd Davies, Playwright, Artistic Director of Living the Drama, Oxford
“I really enjoyed reading the fragments. 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
A Free Event
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Where is it happening?
58 Newton Road, SA3 4BQ, 58 Newton Road, Swansea, SA3 4BQ, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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