WPM2, Creation Studios, 6/6/10

Words Per Minute

Words Per Minute is a new monthly showcase of writing, film, music and anything else the organisers and charming hosts, Anneliese Mackintosh and Kirstin Innes, can get their hands on. This afternoon’s line-up includes Craig Lamont, a new young writer, Rodge Glass and Adrian Searle on their graphic novel project Dougie’s War: A Soldier’s Story, poet Emily Ballou reading from The Darwin Poems and a bizarrely compulsive sound performance from Iain Campbell.

The second half of the afternoon works really well.  Sophie Cooke’s reading is as darkly elegant as her writing, and the short film The Shutdown, beautifully written and magnificently voiced by Alan Bissett and directed by Adam Stafford, is fantastic, and thoroughly deserves the Best Short Documentary prize it has just won at the San Francisco International Film Festival.  Ending the day, Stafford performs from his current album, and the way in which he builds his vocal sound scape is mesmerizing.

This is a brilliant idea to offer a regular performance venue to new and established talent.  Reading work to audiences has always been a joy for me, and I know how vital it is as an editing tool; you just don’t now what a piece is really like until you hear it and see an audience’s reaction.  Anneliese Mackintosh and Kirstin Innes deserve huge praise for getting this up and running.