Box Office 01803 847070
Book ending the Westcountry Storytelling Festival are two of the most amazing and diverse poetic experiences you are likely to find in the UK this Summer – starting on Friday night with local legend Matt Harvey and his Wondermentalist Cabaret and concluding on Sunday night with international poetic superstar Robert Bly.
The Wondermentalist Cabaret opens the poetic action on Friday in Dartington’s Studio 31 and follows on from its huge sell out success at Ways With Words in June. Everyone’s favorite Radio 4 ‘Saturday Live’ rhymster and Guardian regular Matt Harvey is leading his merry band of Wondermentalist poets, comedians and musicians in a crazy cabaret performance night– launching the first evening of oral splendour at this year’s Westcountry Storytelling Festival.
Matt says modestly about his creation, “Wondermentalist works because it celebrates humour and invention and reminds people why they love poetry – plus we tend to get lots of famous people to stand up on stage and read amazing poems – which certainly help when you are opening a Festival celebrating the power and genius of the oral and spoken word tradition.”
Festival organizer Chris Salisbury said “We are absolutely thrilled to have Matt and the Wondermentalist crew booked to kick-start Friday night’s entertainment, as we know they will bring guaranteed wit, sparkle and linguistic genius to what is promising to be the best Westcountry Storytelling Festival so far.”
The Festival will conclude on Sunday night in the Dartington Great Hall with a spoken word and musical performance by Robert Bly, one of America’s foremost poets and “most hotly debated artists of the century”. The million selling author of Iron John and Sibling Society will give his first UK readings from his book My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy and his recent co-authored Hafez translations The Angels Knocking at the Tavern Door.
Joining Robert Bly is another pioneer in the revival of storytelling in the USA, Gioia Timpanelli, who has been described as the “Dean of American storytelling”.
The doors for Wondermentalist open on Friday 5 September at 8pm at Dartington’s Studio 31 – and the doors for Robert Bly open on Sunday 7 September at 8pm in Dartington’s Great Hall.
To book tickets for the Wondermentalist Cabaret please email matt@mattharvey.co.uk or drop into the Harlequin Book Shop in Totnes – where you can pick them up for £7. To book tickets for the Robert Bly event in Dartington’s Great Hall call 01803 847070 or visit the event page
[what's this?]
The Dartington Hall Trust is a registered charity no. 279756. Company no. 1485560. Registered Office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL United Kingdom. Telephone 01803 847000; Fax 01803 847007;