Cabaret
Literature
Music
Poetry
A performance cabaret with cascading words, wild musicality and lightning humour
Ōtepoti | Dunedin
Presented by: Wild Cards Aotearoa
In Wild Cards Aotearoa: Poetry & Song, poet David Eggleton and musician Richard Wallis combine to present a comic and lyric portrait of Aotearoa New Zealand and its place in the South Pacific Moana Nui today. Their Wild Cards poetry cabaret is a 50 minute show full of cascading words, wild musicality and lightning humour.
David Eggleton, the former New Zealand Poet Laureate 2019 - 2022, has been described as “a jazz-bop-beatnik poet whose poems never cease to amaze and astound in their creativity”. He has taken part in the Poetry Olympics and the Ranters' Cup Final, and he has won Street Entertainer of the Year for Poetry at the London Convent Garden Festival.
Richard Wallis is a classical guitarist and soundscape composer who has previously performed in a number of rock music bands in both Dunedin and Christchurch.
“David Eggleton delivers poetry that is alive, vital and contemporary, steeped in popular and postmodern culture. It offers a vision of New Zealand, which is at once resolutely local and yet not quite recognisable or predictable. It offers a vision of ourselves which defies expectation to surprise and charm.”
“The poetry is endlessly imaginative, it’s funny — plus intellectually rewarding.”
“Musician and composer Richard Wallis deserves a special mention for setting the mood and tone. His well-thought-out use of soothing and inspiring background scores complemented the poetry delivered on stage.”
“The blend of poetry and music was a treat.”
“I particularly enjoyed David Eggleton's verse relating to Dunedin and the McKenzie country, as I grew up in Otago. The musical arrangements were very good.”
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