Fair Isle Death Metal Review

Good rapport and laughter was pretty consistent

It's quite a risk sending a playwright to review poetry (I really don't know that much about it ...)  but I know enough to say that Neil Laurenson gave a good account of himself at the Lych Gate. 

Forget the Death Metal: that's just a hook to haul us on board. Neil's thing is simply poetry quietly performed and using a diffident, self-deprecatory persona. 

All the poems were fairly short - some little more than verbal squibs - but he managed to cover a surprising range of themes. A good deal of comic verse (dogs biting him gratuitously when he's running, overenthusiastic commentaries on boat trips, how he finds small talk unnerving) was augmented with some genuinely serious stuff. 

As someone who, like Neil, can't understand how the world stands by and allows what's happening in Gaza and Lebanon, I naturally applauded Neil's deeply felt response. To give just one example: he cited the horror of  pagers being deliberately blown up in Lebanon, disfiguring them. One line stood out: a badly-injured girl's face looked like 'the worst Picasso'.

He also talked frankly (and entertainingly!) about his Autism. 

The audience was very comfortable with Neil: there was a good rapport and laughter was pretty consistent (where appropriate) throughout the gig. My feeling was that his throw-away approach to the funnier material was sometimes a little too understated; he occasionally moved on to the next laugh before the slower elements amongst us (myself) had got it.

His professional savvy shone however when I misheard him say something about A E Housman  and he kept the ball in play with a nifty response.

Neil is well worth seeing.