Poetry in motion

There’s clearly a problem midway through rehearsals at West Yorkshire Playhouse and not just because the electric fans are doing little to reduce the searing heat.

“They don’t get my cultural references,” admits 40-something James Brining, who is directing the young cast of Ode to Leeds. “Any of them.”

Right on cue, Chance Perdomo chips in: “What did you say the other day, it was a ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink’ moment. That’s from Monty Python, right? So is this a ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink’ moment.”

Brining lets him down gently. It’s not, but he at least looks grateful that he remembered and admits that aside from making him feel very old he’s having a ball bringing together Ode to Leeds, which was inspired by the real life story of a group of teenage slam poets from the city who a few years ago took New York by storm.

“There’s been a lot going on at the theatre recently, which has taken a lot of my attention,” says Brining, a reference to the venue’s major redevelopment which should get underway next year. “It’s all important stuff and vital for the future of this place, but it’s nice to be getting my hands dirty again.

“When I joined the Playhouse one of the things I said was that I wanted to stage more work which told the story of the city and its people. We are the only producing theatre in the city and we have a responsibility to reflect our surroundings. Ode to Leeds does exactly that.”

The play is written by rising star Zimababwe-born Zodwa Nyoni who found her creative voice through the Leeds Young Authors group while still at school.

“In English classes, we read Keats, we read Wordsworth, but how can I put it, they were all dead, white men,” she laughs. “Then I went to an event Benjamin Zephaniah was doing and everything changed.”

That night, Zephaniah, a dub poet and one of the country’s leading black voices, had invited the Leeds Young Authors to be his support act.

“Honestly, I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing,” says Zodwa, now 28. “Here was a group of young people just like me, who had been given a platform to air their opinions in a language I and everyone else in that room that night understood. Every single one of them appeared so confident, so self-assured and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Having signed up to the LYA, Zodwa began to experiment with her own poetry and what happened next forms the basis of Ode to Leeds.

“We won the National Poetry Slam Competition and that led to us representing the UK at the Brave New Voices poetry festival in New York. I was just 17 and it was a mad time.

“I will always remember being out in America and having to correct people when they kept saying, ‘So, you must be from London, England’. We were very determined that everyone should know that we were from Leeds, England.

“Fortunately at the time Corinne Bailey Rae was pretty big out there, so even if they had no idea where Leeds was, we could tell them it was where she lived.

“It was a really special time. Being part of a poetry slam group is like having a second family. In fact, through the poetry, you are probably more open and honest with them than you are with your actual family. I think that says a lot about the power of poetry as an art form.”

Ode to Leeds is very much a fictionalised version of that journey and Zodwa has already been forced to trot out the ‘all persons fictitious’ disclaimer.

“They won’t believe it when I say it, but the characters in Ode to Leeds aren’t based on the people I met at Leeds Young Authors. However, when you write about something which is so rooted in your own experience it’s inevitable that people you know will see themselves in your work.”

Zodwa’s own blossoming as a professional playwright began in 2011 when she was taken under the wing of the Playhouse by Alex Chisholm, who was then the theatre’s literary manager.

Writing is where her heart lays, but when she won a Channel 4 residency at the theatre she was determined that she would not just refine her craft, but that she would use the opportunity to learn about the business of theatre.

“I think it’s important,” she says. “It’s all too easy to complain that you are being overlooked or that your voice isn’t being heard, but you can’t take it in isolation. Yes a theatre should represent its community and yes it should put on diverse work, but it’s also a business. If it doesn’t make money then it doesn’t work.

“When I found out I had got the residency I remember saying, ‘Right, I want to experience every department. I want to know how a place like this works’. It was really enlightening.

“It’s easy to criticise a producing theatre for putting on big, mainstream shows, but it’s only by getting bums on seats that can then afford to nurture – and take a risk on – new talent.”

Back in the rehearsal room, Brining is trying to get the actors to find their own meaning behind the words. After a while there is a breakthrough and Perdomo and Genesis Lynea, who plays slam poet matriarch Queenie, run through one of the play’s more emotional scenes again.

“It’s funny,” says Nyoni. “Sometimes I hear my words and I just think, ‘Oh my I wrote that, how beautiful’.” Judging on Ode to Leeds, right now Nyoni has every right to be feeling a little smug.

Ode to Leeds, West Yorkshire Playhouse, June 10 to July 1. 0113 217 7z00, wyp.org.uk