Review: Word Life ****

Bradford University’s theatre has some of Yorkshire’s most ecelectic programming and with Word Life, hosted monthly by Joe Kriss, it has cornered the West Yorkshire market in spoken word. Kriss is an engaging, affable poet from Sheffield who runs the night and March’s edition pulled in some cracking talent.

In the middle of the bill was the highlight of the night, Steve Larkin, the Morley-raised now Oxford-based performance poet. A piece about the way students enter his home city of Leeds, take what they want and leave was a coruscating attack that never fell below the standard of being utterly entertaining. Equally his parody of spoken word artists who take what they do a little too seriously, in the guise of alter ego Wan Ah Kah, was enthralling and hilarious.

His too-short set was preceeded by a couple of talents whose opposing styles complemented each other. Keighley-born Sarah Thomasin’s musings on being gay and the pressures of being a woman were entertaining enough, while Helen Mort’s more contemplative work was engrossing. Unfortunately for Alabaster De Plume, he followed Larkin, who had so brilliantly parodied exactly what De Plume took to the stage to do. While De Plume’s on stage personal love-in was fascinating for all the wrong reasons, it played its part in creating a fantastically entertaining evening.

Word Life, April 15.