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Luke Wright: Joy 3.5 stars *** - One4Review

Luke Wright: Joy  3.5 stars ***

| On 10, Aug 2024

Luke Wright is a well-loved performance poet at Edinburgh. At the top of this show he pitches himself to us as a 42 year old father from Suffolk. The show sifts through the sock draw of mulchy middle age trying to find the little gems of joy. It starts off strong with the little things. ‘Treats’, is scathing diatribe against the marketing of ‘treats’ in our life as a constant necessity for enjoyment.

Clearly one thing he takes huge amounts of joy in is nerdy wordplay and poem structures. The Joy is really catching when he talks us through these structures before a virtuosic demonstration. There is a uni-vowel poem (only giving himself an A Vowel) about a scrap between a performance poet and a literary poet. A ‘sestina’ for joy which has a complicated structure of ending and beginnings with specific words using some of his favourite words as starting points ‘Wine’, ‘Friday’. The pure pleasure of doing something creative for its own ends is a joy to watch.

The past and present interweave in discussion of his pocket monster filled childhood, first settling into a home and a moral dilemma about a review he once wrote which haunts him. He has a great summation of the past present and future, casting the past as the sexy unobtainable one. But in this show it feels like it’s weighed down a bit by nostalgia.

The show is peppered with intimate poems closer to home about joyful and tearful moments with his sons, which were impactful, but could do with a bit more air around them for us to really appreciate them. There were so many quick tonal shifts, which for me, meant it didn’t quite hang together as a show.

For lovers of words and the appreciation of the joy of abseiling vicars do go see the show. I’m not sure there are any massive takeaways on the nature of joy. Having said that, I probably will take his advice and go home and chuck out all the terrible socks lurking in my sock drawer for the nirvana of only good socks in the drawer kind of joy.

***1/2
Reviewed by Sarah
14.55 (1hr)
Pleasance Dome-10 Dome
Until 13th Aug

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