Review: LUKE WRIGHT'S SILVER JUBILEE, Pleasance London

“It’s a bit much, but so am I”

What do you get when you combine poetry, comedy, and a little bit of drum and bass? You get Luke Wright’s Silver Jubilee. The show, a celebration of Wright’s 25 years performing and touring poetry (“Less than the Queen but more than Truss”), is an hour of the poet/comedian discussing a range of topics including being adopted, privilege, and cats named Bagel and Sir John Betjeman.  

Wright spends time going into his love for poetry that he has developed over the years, particular his obsession with rhyme rules that lead to his fascination with Oulipo, French-speaking writers who argued that one must place art under great constraint. He uses the Oulipo’s restraints to create a poem in which he only uses one vowel, “A.”

Along with an interest in 1960s French avant-garde artists, Wright also talks about his fascination with Fessholes, a Twitter account where people anonymously confess to the horrible things they’ve done and share them on social media. 

One of the highlights of Luke Wright’s Silver Jubilee is when Wright describes the story of his birth in seven styles that include The Daily Mail, Star Wars and Fesshole, emphasising the point that “You can choose your own story.” The moment is a brilliant example of how Wright is able to merge his poetic and comedic skills, using witty lines and pop culture knowledge to appeal to audiences while also telling a story about an emotional part of his life. 

Some other poem highlights include “Won’t Stop Until I’ve Had Too Much,” inspired by Michael Jackson’s song, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” “Later Life Letter,” a poem dedicated to social workers and “Finding My Birth Mother on Facebook,” whose title is self-explanatory.

Towards the end of Silver Jubilee, Wright begins to reflect more on his life and his views of the time we live in, leading to one of the more powerful poems in the show in which he questions society’s dependence on social media and its lack of interest in the beauty of nature - “Are Murmurations Worth It?” It is an interesting poem that illustrates Wright’s frustrations with the world based on his own experience of Googling information about starling murmurations while waiting for The Starlings to emerge. 

Ultimately, Luke Wright’s Silver Jubilee is a wonderful hour of poetry and storytelling, blurring the lines between prose and comedy in a unique fashion. Wright has spent twenty-five years honing his craft and it’s clear to the audience in this show.

Luke Wright’s Silver Jubilee ran at Pleasance London on 2 November.

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