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Dates:

Dates:

5 - 13 MAY

7:45pm

Body 115

£10/£13/£16

writer

Jan Noble

director

Justin Butcher

'Noble’s delivery combined with Justin Butcher’s direction make this something you simply can’t look away from – and you wouldn’t want to'

The Reviews Hub

'One hour of literary and poetic brilliance. Not to be missed.'

A Young(ish) Perspective

'Where theatre meets poetry, local history and time travel, Jan Noble has gilded tonsils'

information
cast
production team

Body 115 is a mini verse-drama, a tale of inner and outer journeys in explicit homage to Dante’s Divine Comedy written and performed by poet Jan Noble. 

From the rain-washed, subterranean underworld of Kings Cross, ‘Body 115’ – the long unidentified victim of the 1987 fire – becomes Virgil to Noble’s Dante. A voyage of discovery and recovery, embracing decay and gentrification, a sense of place and the need to escape. Invoking ancient rebellion and civil strife, through London runnels to picturesque Kent, we meet Marlowe at Millwall and Keats at Gravesend. Led from the limbo realm of a Calais refugee camp to the slumbering battlefields of Flanders, we travel to Paris where poet-ghosts of yesteryear throng the backstreets of Montparnasse. And at last, to Milan, in a season of wet weather, we arrive to find that more than just the rain awaits. 

This one hour, one person show is an energetic blend of theatre and richly lyrical poetry. A rhapsodic paean to the trammelling ecstasy of loss. A trans-European odyssey turned safari of the soul.

‘A brilliant show. Astonishing and startling.’
– Illona Linthwaite
‘Jan Noble is a force.’
– Guy Masterson

Latecomers may not be admitted. Please arrive in good time for the start.
Under 18s are not permitted into the theatre for this performance. 
No re-admittance once the performance has commenced. Refunds and exchanges are not available.


Body 115/Himself

Jan Noble

London-based poet Jan Noble studied Fine Art at Canterbury College of Art. He was a member of punk band Monkey Island, recording albums at the Stiff Records studio Pathway, Islington and performing regularly at the Hope & Anchor in Islington. Their releases include the spoken word monologue Mussolini’s Teaspoons (2001), The Guardian Guide’s ‘single of the week’. He has recorded poetry with producer Craig Leon (Pavarotti, Blondie, The Ramones) at Abbey Road studios that featured on the album Cesarians 1 (2009) and his ongoing collaboration with composer Donna McKevitt includes the album This Is What I Wanted To Give You (2016).

He has performed readings in venues as diverse as the ICA in London, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York, Teatro Filodrammatici in Milan, and Teatrino Di Palazzo Grassi in Venice. He has taught creative writing in prisons, psychiatric hospitals and homeless shelters and was poetry facilitator for leading London mental health charity, Core Arts establishing a creative writing class for the homeless at the Union Chapel, Islington.

Other work includes, My Name is Swan (2017) a poetic monologue performed at every pub in London with ‘Swan’ in its name, documented in a film officially selected for the East End Film Festival, ‘Margate Now’ at the Turner Contemporary, and the International Poetry Film Festival, Los Angeles (2023). Jan was a principal reader in Speaking Dante in 2022, a 24 hour reading of the entire Divine Comedy in Florence which included readings by Ralph Fiennes and Helen Mirren. His latest poetic work Shelley 200 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and has been performed at Keats-Shelley House, Rome and the British Institute, Florence.

His forthcoming work includes Reynard a 45-minute poetic monologue read by John Nettles, that will be released as a vinyl album in the autumn.

writer

Jan Noble

director

Justin Butcher

producer

J. Productions, Milan

stage manager

Matthew Sheldon

lighting designer

Tom Turner

sound designer

Jack Arnold

The Hope Theatre is managed by Solar Plexus Productions Limited. Registered in England and Wales. Company No: 09175959. Solar Plexus Productions Limited is a Registered Charity. Charity No: 1162904. Registered Address: Flat 3, 120 Prince of Wales Road, London, NW5 3NE.

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