Cry Freedom

Breaking Free

Cry Freedom

compiled by Anne Warrington

Poetry Performance at Hampton Hill Theatre, 4^th June

Review by Michelle Hood

This pot pourri of poems, prose and folk songs, compiled and produced by the indefatigable Anne Warrington, under the generic title of Cry Freedom, was a one-off production at Hampton Hill Theatre and presented by the local Teddington group Poetry Performance.  This was a brave and ambitious venture for the group, aimed at helping to bring their work to a wider audience, and judging by the full auditorium on a sunny Sunday afternoon, their mission was completely successful.  In hiring Hampton Hill Theatre, this happy band of poets, together with help from friends, were able to showcase their talents by bringing two hours of excellent entertainment to the stage in front of an appreciative audience.

The group Poetry Performance meet regularly on the first Sunday of every month at the Adelaide pub in Teddington.  Most members of the group are not natural or experienced performers and so the ensemble of eighteen were fleshed out by some more familiar faces from the local drama scene and professional actors.

Cry Freedom was compered by Sam Ball, who introduced this exploration of people, life and freedom which started with one of a number of poems written by Patricia Cammish, A Dream of Freedom, which set the tone for the programme with its spirited first line “Cry freedom and let soar the doves of peace.”  There then unfolded a series of themes such as war and the concept of freedom, dictatorships, female rights, slavery, physical and mental well-being and the loss of individual freedom through imprisonment.

With 35 different items it would be churlish to highlight all, but I will mention some of the items that captured my imagination.  Firstly, congratulations to the musicians consisting of the always excellent Ian Lee-Dolphin together with Annie Morris and the fine voice of Suzy Rowland, especially spine tingling in her opening Redemption Song. 

Evocative words also in two further poems by Patricia Cammish, Freedom Decanted (Heather Montford; Heather Moulson; Keith Wait; Sue Bell; Connaire Kensit) and Credo for the Cancel Culture, spoken by Sue Bell with crystal clear diction enunciating every syllable.  Turning to prose, Francis Abbott delivered an extract from Orwell’s 1984 with great style and conviction and indeed, without notes, an extraordinary feat given he also had in his memory the lines of TS Eliot’s Becket from Murder in the Cathedral from an RSS performance the previous night.  Continuing the theme of dictatorships was a further engrossing prose item, The Good Town, again performed by the choral group, followed by Blue on Yellow, written and performed by Keith Wait in a subtle and moving poem finishing with the lines “fly blue for bravery and yellow now for love.”  Following the theme of Ukraine, Barbara Lee read her poem Freedom – about enjoying the freedoms of London contrasted to the Ukraine and “the children crying in the street who are not free.”

After the interval, the themes on human rights turned to issues of female inequality, with a reading by Heather Moulson from The Handmaid’s Tale, and poems written by Heather Moulson (Gaolers) and Trisha Bloomfield (Freedom Matters).  The mood was then lightened with two amusing pieces performed by Dilly Orme and Andrew Evzona called Rockets immediately followed by the funny A Piece of Cake.  Another light-hearted moment was provided by Anne Warrington’s amusing sketch of Adam, Eve and God discussing apples, pies and pi 3.14 to infinity!

This was followed by perhaps the most striking and memorable sequence in the programme, written by Daniel Haisey, when the theme turned to the loss of freedom through imprisonment.  Nathan Haisey’s reading of From Behind the Bars was possibly the highlight with its intensity and power of delivery. 

The final poems were Slavery by Robin Clarke read by Connaire Kensit and Andrew Evzona and Freedom by Anthony Josolyne and performed by Francis Abbott – a touching tale of a lonely and imprisoned budgerigar.  Two more robust songs finished off an enjoyable afternoon with renditions of Freedom Highway and If I Had a Hammer.  

With direction by Ken Mason, Poetry Performance’s theatrical production seemed an undoubted success with its mix of serious thought-provoking subjects brought together in a varied and compelling format.

Michelle Hood, June 2023

Photography by Jake Rigg