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Stevie Smith: unpredictable – even beyond the grave |
On the road again with Stevie
John Horder previews a new celebration of the poet’s life
ONE thing is as certain as physical death: the second Stevie Smith Roadshow at the Magdala pub in Hampstead on Tuesday will be as different as it impossibly can be from the first one in January.
One of the high points of that Roadshow was “Lady ‘Rogue’ Singleton”, in which Gerard Benson, as Henry, makes the seemingly harmless proposal of marriage to Lady Singleton in the very first line.
Unfortunately Gerald Benson, one of the most dramatic performers of Stevie’s poems of all time, won’t be present this time because of ill health.
Cicely Herbert as Lady Singleton comes back in the second stanza with a relish that cuts Henry’s fantasies to the bone:
I could never make you happy, darling,
Or give you the baby you want,
I would always very much rather, dear,
Live in a tent.
The line “I’d rather live in a tent” brought the house down in January at the Magdala.
The equally self-revealing performance of another of Stevie’s knock-out poems, “Bog-Face”, was delivered as an encore by a member of the audience, Josie Bodley, in the second half:
Dear little Bog-Face,
Why are you so cold?
And why do you lie with your eyes shut? –
You are not very old.
I am a Child of this World,
And a Child of Grace,
And Mother, I shall be glad when it is over,
I am Bog-Face.
The line-up on Tuesday will include poets Cicely Herbert, Dinah Livingstone, Alan Morrison and myself.
Frances Spalding, Stevie’s authorised biographer, will be speaking of Stevie’s heart-breaking poem “To Carry The Child”, which will be performed this time by Ms Livingstone.
Other published poets expected to attend include Alan Brownjohn, John Mole and Eddie Linden.
At the Royal Court Theatre in the 1960s, Stevie was so wracked by nerves she took too many purple hearts by mistake.
The result was the same uneven ramshackle quality to be found in the new CD just issued by the British Library in its The Spoken Word series, Stevie Smith, which appears to have been flung together in too great a hurry, and without any finesse.
During an interview for a 45-minute programme that was broadcast with inspiration on BBC Radio 3 on April Fool’s Day of 1963, Stevie enchanted everybody present, including producer Helen Rapp and an amazed studio manager, by singing German hymns and nursery rhymes with a strong Blakean intonation.
Frances Spalding, who gives a wilder account of these 1960s happenings in her authorised biography, Stevie, may be persuaded to repeat them at the Magdala Upper Room.
Unpredictability has always been Stevie’s watchword, whether in life or beyond the grave.
The Roadshow, as always, will be in the hands of the audience: “Bring your favourite Stevie Smith poem to perform in person” is the only mantra that works with an authentic poet as well loved as she was.
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