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Liz Bentley and Caroline Smith: 'Louche Women' at the Poetry Cafe

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Time 20:00
Date 04/12/13
Price £7

An evening with a theme of childbirth and punk feat midwife Becky Reed (story of justice after NMC witch hunt) and Tyrone Thomas (of Alternative TV fame) playing acoustic set.

Louche Women is a new talk show that throws a spotlight on life’s sordid underbelly. What do we really think? Well - we'll tell you. It's genius, subversively charming and abound with insider information. Together they are the voice of worldly experience delivered with a tune and many a wicked gag.

About Liz
Liz Bentley is one of the quirkiest voices on the UK’s spoken word scene.

She is a sit down comedienne and host, entertaining audiences with poetry, stories, ukulele and casio keyboard.

She strives to smash the apartheid between disability and mainstream arts.
    
She's a writer, poet, comedienne, host, programmer, producer, musician, mother, psychotherapist and insomniac. She was born in Essex in 1964 and moved to London at 21. She lives in Peckham with her two children.   

Liz sought psychotherapy at 23. Struggling with bulimia, drugs, relationships, abuse and the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, her therapy allowed her to be creative and provided a way of making sense of her difficulties.

During her analysis she trained as a counsellor. She has a private psychotherapist practice and is one of the quirkiest voices on the UK’s spoken word scene.

Liz’s experiences of mental health and multiple sclerosis have taken her into disability arts, performing at events such as Bonkersfest, Mad Pride, Mad Chicks, Liberty festival (Liberty laureate 2009), Da Da festival and therapy conferences.  

About Caroline
Caroline Smith  is a performance maker and shaker whose comical and often sinister works reveal the unfamiliar in the everyday and the commonplace in the strange. She plays with alter egos and often works within broad and specialist communities to engage desires, drives and the dark (as well as the lighter) sides.

Her themes explore complicity and exchange and the inevitable disturbances that arise between self and other. Her new talk show with poet / comic Liz Bentley sets this in motion. Neither know each other that well, and Louche Women is a performance of their new relationship, William Burroughs-style.

In solo work, she often performs under the guise of 50s suburban housewife Mertle Merman; M. Abrakadabrovic; and the bird, Rita Grebe (The Great Crested) – a pilot project in  partnership with the RSPB on Wallasea Island and supported by Metal Culture Southend and the Arts Council of England. Her characters present shows on eating, bird-watching and shame.

She is formerly Arts Editor of Attitude magazine in London; Black Book in New York. She was at the University of Greenwich running the Creative Writing, Journalism and Media Writing programmes for a decade and was appointed Teaching Fellow and Principal Lecturer. She left the university in autumn 2012 to launch solo and collaborative projects. She is currently an MPhil/ PhD candidate at Chelsea School of Art in London, exploring staged silences in contemporary performance.  Publications include Women and Performance (Tisch School of Art/ Routledge), Wasafiri and Brand literary magazine.

She has performed at many of the UK’s  leading venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Tate Modern, ICA, Whitechapel Gallery and the Hayward.
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COMPETITION: Win 1x Pair of tickets to attend Liz Bentley and Caroline Smith: 'Louche Women' at the Poetry Cafe on Wednesday, 4th December 2013. To enter the competition, send an email to admin@run-riot.com with the correct answer in the ‘subject’ box. The winner will be randomly selected.

Q: Liz Bentley has many talents, one of which is the ability to sing and play which instrument (yes, at the same time)?
A: .1) trumpet .2) tombone .3) clarinet .4) ukelele

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