Poet in da Corner

Debris Stevenson author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:25th Sep '18

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Poet in da Corner cover

A coming of age story inspired by Dizzee Rascal's seminal album. In this semi-autobiographical piece, step into a technicolour world where music, dance and spoken word collide, and discover how grime allowed Debris Stevenson to redefine herself.

A coming of age story inspired by Dizzee Rascal’s seminal album. In this semi-autobiographical piece, step into a technicolour world where music, dance and spoken word collide, and discover how grime allowed Debris Stevenson to redefine herself.A coming of age story inspired by Dizzee Rascal’s seminal album. In a strict Mormon household somewhere in the seam between East London and Essex, a girl is given Dizzee Rascal’s ground-breaking grime album Boy in da Corner by her best friend SS Vyper. Precisely 57 minutes and 21 seconds later, her life begins to change – from feeling muted by dyslexia to spitting the power of her words; from being conflicted about her sexuality to finding the freedom to explore; from feeling alone to being given the greatest gift by her closest friend. In this semi-autobiographical piece, step into a technicolour world where music, dance and spoken word collide, and discover how grime allowed Debris Stevenson to redefine herself.

"It's rare to come across a piece of theatre that is so gloriously and absolutely itself as this sparks-flying homage to grime music... one of the most exciting things I've seen all year... this poet deserves to be front & centre." ★★★★★ * Evening Standard *
An ode to [grime], performed as a poetic monologue but also a kind of grime musical... Stevenson maintains raw energy and passion and it is thrilling to see grime as a mode of theatrical storytelling. The heartstopping moments, though, are in the spoken-word poetry, when words blaze the stage and Stevenson appears like the Kate Tempest of grime. ★★★★ * Guardian *
Like Stevenson's sprinting lyrics, Ola Ince's production oozes assurance... the skill with words clings. * The Times *
A gutsy, gritty breath of fresh air – a galvanising love letter to the music that allowed her to escape her claustrophobic East London upbringing... Stevenson is a witty wordsmith, spitting punchy, rapid-fire bars on education, on religion, on politics and everything in between, weaving in a classically structured coming-of-age rebellion story of a repressed teenager finding their voice through music... best of all, Poet In Da Corner is alive to its own innate complications... an energetic, exuberant gig-theatre show, built with theatrical savviness on Dizzee Rascal's iron-strong foundation." ★★★★ * WhatsOnStage *
Putting grime in a theatre space is always going to feel weird, and ‘Poet in da Corner’ is endlessly aware of what it means to put a white girl in the middle of this story and this theatre. Does it do enough? I guess I’m not the right person to answer that question. But Stevenson’s performance feels undeniable, soaked in the sweat of a ’00s east London that’s not quite Dizzee Rascal’s, but authentically hers. ★★★★ * Time Out London *
"Christian is a delicate and thoughtful writer, deftly handling the moral complexity of her material" * The Guardian *

ISBN: 9781786826732

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

96 pages