What can politics teach poetry? That was the question posed by Tim Clare and Mark Grist at this unusual verse meets votes show at Norwich Arts Centre.
Using flash cards and some phone app wizardry, the audience of Voted Out were invited to register their levels of happiness and intelligence and their political leanings, with the aim of discovering what impact – if any – the writers’ words had.
The two took turns to riff on politics, poetry, pugs, and progeny, ending with rap-style references to video games and fictional bad guys. We apparently ended up less intelligent, less happy, and more right-wing.
While an interesting conceit, the voting took up time that could have been better spent. Grist and Clare have quite different styles but both are compelling orators and Norfolk audiences are well known for their demanding nature. We want to be entertained, and that means a little dictatorship: more bards, fewer ballots!
