Luke Wright’s acclaimed The Remains of Logan Dankworth at Bristol Wardrobe Theatre on 19 & 20 April
The Remains of Logan Dankworth is the third and final instalment of Luke Wright’s trilogy of political verse plays. As we continue to discover the lingering legacy of Brexit, the play, set in 2016 as the referendum campaigns build, centres on themes of privilege and trust between married couples, between voters and politicians and trust and truth in the media.
After an extensive 2020 tour suffered multiple Covid caused postponements (and who could have predicted that the tour of a show about Brexit could be delayed and drawn out!), Luke feared the opportunity to perform the play around the country was lost. But now, following a successful run at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe the play is touring around the country in the first half of 2023 including dates atBristol Wardrobe Theatre on Weds 19 & Thurs 20 April.
Logan Dankworth, newspaper columnist and Twitter warrior, grew up romanticising the political turmoil of the 1980s. Now, as the EU Referendum looms, he is determined to be right there in the fray of the biggest political battle for years. Meanwhile, Logan’s wife Megan wants to leave London to find a better place to raise their daughter. As tensions mount at home and across the nation, something is set to be lost forever. Can we ever learn to trust each other again?
Arifa Akbar in The Guardian said of the play ‘His performance rumbles with rage, passion and humour, peppered with brilliantly smart observations’ while The Scotsman’s Joyce McMillan hailed it as ‘a superb hour of pointed and timely storytelling, extraordinary and eloquent’.
The first two plays in the trilogy, What I Learned from Johnny Bevan and Frankie Vah, won praise from critics and audiences alike for their ‘mature, lyrical and politically relevant poetic writing’ (Exeunt), laced with wit, compassion and laser precision, dissecting the emotions of people affected by the political developments of the day.
Luke said ‘The Remains of Logan Dankworth’ is certainly the most complex and one of the most mature things I’ve written. As with my previous plays there is a strong personal story occurring against the backdrop of political upheaval. The previous plays dealt with the effects on real people of Thatcherism and the legacy of New Labour. This features a man approaching middle age excited by the febrile nature of British politics while trying to hold things together at home.’
‘And I do believe that the arts (in my case theatre and poetry) can help us understand politics and the effects that political acts and policies have on all of us. Not that you need to be a news junky to appreciate the play, above all it’s a cracking good story!’
The Stage agreed with him describing it as ‘a hurtling, headlong hour of storytelling stuffed full of savage satire and astute observations’ with The Daily Telegraph saying it ‘Satirically gets the measure of our hysteria-wedded age… The language has a joyous alliterative swagger’.
At each show Luke will also perform an opening set of his poems, hailed as ‘cool poems’ by the legendary Patti Smith.
Luke Wright is a poet and theatre maker. This year he enters the 25th year of performing his poems live. Touring all over the world he is now acknowledged as one of Britain’s top stand-up poets and one of the principal architects of the now thriving spoken word scene.
Flamboyant, political and riotously funny, his published work includes several collections of poetry and the three verse plays. He is the winner of a Fringe First, a Stage Award for Acting Excellence and three Saboteur Awards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5IrpFI5Oi8&ab_channel=LukeWright
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