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Love in the Key of Britpop
Love in the Key of Britpop
They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gave poet Emily Andersen a Britpop-related heartbreak, Emily made a Britpop-related heartbreak spoken word show.
Emily, who recently returned to her home town Melbourne after two years living out her indie pop and poetry dreams in the UK, is excited to be bringing Love in the Key of Britpop to a New Zealand audience as part of NZ Fringe Festival.
Love in the Key of Britpop debuted at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where the Scotsman described it as “A must-see for anyone who grew up in the 90s and enjoys playing ‘spot the lyrical reference’” and the BBC 6 Music Breakfast Show invited her on air to deliver the weekly Friday poem. In 2013, Emily performed the show at FRINGE WORLD Perth, Adelaide Fringe, Sydney Fringe and Melbourne Fringe.
Emily, a self-confessed Anglophile and British pop tragic, is keen to find out how a New Zealand audience receives her work. “I met heaps of Britpop and poetry fans in the UK and Australia doing this show, and had a beer and a music rave with quite a few in the bar afterwards, so I’m very much looking forward to meeting the indie kids of Wellington in February!”
Love in the Key of Britpop is a spoken word show telling the tale of young indie lovers experiencing a relationship through the prism of Britpop.
An anglophile Aussie girl meets her English Britpop prince in a Melbourne indie disco in the early hours of New Years Day 2006, and expects the couple to ride off happily into a 90’s sunset on matching vespas, waving union jacks and singing Girls and Boys all the way. But is singing along, hand on heart, to all the same favourite songs enough to sustain a relationship? Can any romance live up to the fantasies we create?
Emily performs a funny and poignant poetic narrative, set between Melbourne and London, exploring the place of music in relationships, and feminist conundrums and contradictions. This solo show is an ode to Britpop, nightclub romance, visa marriages, and anglophilic love.
**** “Andersen’s poetry has that magic ability to err between pithy one-liners and something more honest and bleak” Broadway Baby
“A must-see for anyone who grew up in the 90s and enjoys playing ‘spot the lyrical reference’” The Scotsman
Emily Andersen is an Australian poet who lives in Melbourne, and sometimes London, whose work is inspired by the themes of pop music, politics and place. Emily was mentored by the late, celebrated Australian poet Dorothy Porter between 2004 and 2005, and made her Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut in 2012 with her one-woman spoken word show Love in the Key of Britpop. She has performed her poetry on the BBC 6 Music breakfast show, as well as at spoken word events in the UK and Australia. Emily is such a British pop fangirl that her London flat is on the street where the video for the Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony was filmed.
www.loveinthekeyofbritpop.co.uk @LoveKeyBritpop / facebook.com/britpoplove
LISTINGS INFORMATION – Love in the Key of Britpop at NZ Fringe Festival 2014
FEBRUARY 25 – MARCH 1, 7:00pm (55 mins) FRINGE BAR, 26-32 Allen St, Te Aro, Wellington, 6011 TICKETING: www.fringe.co.nz
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SHOW DESCRIPTION
Love in the Key of Britpop is a one-woman show, a poetic narrative which is a witty and poignant take on how every relationship and heartbreak has a soundtrack.
“Anglophile Aussie girl meets English boy in a Melbourne indie disco in the early hours of New Years Day 2006. A blur of love, gin and tonic, and passionate Britpop debate ensues. But is singing along, hand on heart, to all the same favourite songs enough to sustain a relationship? Britpop fanatic Emily Andersen performs bittersweet poetry for anyone who wishes it was still 1995. This solo show is an ode to Britpop, nightclub romance, visa marriages, and anglophilic love.”
The show is performed in a stripped back style, where Emily performs the 55 minute show as one continuous poem, complemented by snatches of Britpop songs. Themes dealt with include romance and relationships, fantasy versus reality, pop music (Britpop) and its wider cultural significance, and place (in particular Melbourne and London).
Love in the Key of Britpop’s primary audience during its first run in Edinburgh, and subsequent runs in Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, were Britpop and indie music fans aged between 25 and 45, both male and female, who enjoyed the Britpop, Beatles and other references. This included Australians who could relate to the themes of anglophilia and wishing to live in the UK during the Britpop era. A secondary audience was people aged over 50, particularly women, who had minimal knowledge of Britpop, but enjoyed and empathised with the love story. Love in the Key of Britpop also attracted poetry and spoken word fans of all ages, who were either writers themselves, or regular attendees of spoken word nights.
BIOGRAPHIES
Emily Andersen – Writer and Performer
Emily Andersen is an Australian poet who lives between London and Melbourne, whose work is inspired by the themes of pop music, politics and place. Emily was mentored by the late, celebrated Australian poet Dorothy Porter between 2004 and 2005, and made her Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut in 2012 with her one-woman spoken word show Love in the Key of Britpop. She has performed her poetry on the BBC 6 Music breakfast show, as well as at spoken word events in the UK and Australia. Emily previously wrote, produced and performed in plays for her former company the Union Players in the Melbourne Fringe Festival: Friday Night at the Union in 2005; Satisfaction in 2006; and The Agreement in 2007.
Emily is General Manager of spoken word journal Going Down Swinging, and was previously General Manager of Express Media, Australia’s national young writers’ organisation. Emily has a BA in Journalism from RMIT, a Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing from Melbourne University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Community Cultural Development Practice from the Victorian College of the Arts.
As well as writing, her passions include activism, community cultural development, psychogeography, the Fitzroy Football Club, and pop and indie music, particularly Britpop, the Beatles and Morrissey. Emily is such a British pop fangirl that she lives on the street where the videos for the Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony and the Arctic Monkey’s Why’d Do Only Call Me When You’re High were filmed.
REVIEWS OF LOVE IN THE KEY OF BRITPOP
During previous runs in Edinburgh, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, Love in the Key of Britpop was reviewed by the following publications:
The Scotsman “A must-see for anyone who grew up in the 90s and enjoys playing ‘spot the lyrical reference’”
Broadway Baby **** “Andersen’s poetry has that magic ability to err between pithy one-liners and something more honest and bleak“
Rip It Up "A simple set; red curtain, black stage, stool, spotlight and microphone. All we have is Emily Andersen. And that is all we need... It’s quite a brilliant effort"
The West Australian "You find yourself engrossed in her character, intrigued by her narrative and moving to the pulse of her words. It’s a wonderful effect"
Adelaide Theatre Guide **** "Andersen managed to have the audience hanging on every word she said. Her honesty and fragility made her performance all the more believable"
Arts Hub “The beautifully written prose is laden with rhyming couplets, clever aphorisms, acid-tongue commentary and vivid imagery of the late noughties. Her spoken word performance is truly alluring and certainly, very lyrical”
Issimo “This is a marvellous show – if I were awarding stars for Issimo, I’d be tempted to give it five”
Melbourne Spoken Word “There’s a deft balance of biographical character, ironic humour, tragic pathos, wild romance that carries you all the way through the drama”
Fringe Review "Emily Andersen is a talented writer and knows how to capture her audience’s imagination as she cleverly weaves the lyrics of her favourite Britpop songs in her own work"
The Advertiser "Andersen's poetry is unique, nostalgic and well delivered"
Three Weeks “Andersen’s genre specific knowledge is as impressive as her passion is evident”
Fringebiscuit “Frank and endearing delivery of relatable material”
PRESS
Emily was featured in a photo shoot in Three Weeks magazine (Week Two Issue, 2012) with fellow Britpop-inspired artist Rosie Wilby
Love in the Key of Britpop was featured in The Scotsman’s Edinburgh Fringe preview article 'Fringe highlights: Ten of the best weird and wonderful shows for 2012' (May 31, 2012)
Emily recorded a poem about the Edinburgh Fringe for BBC 6 Music breakfast show with Shuan Keveny, which was broadcast on August 10, 2012.
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