Lines & Lyrics: Poems & Songs by Mark Raffills & Leigh Strange
Raffills & Strange (Mohua Golden Bay)
“a voice that stops traffic” audience feedback
You know those days when you have to laugh or you’d cry? Mark and Leigh wrote that stuff down, coloured the pages, screwed them up, lit them on fire and set the ashes to music. The singer of sad songs who longs to be funny, hangs on every oaked word of the wise poet and sings with “a voice that stops traffic”.
Mark’s words can soothe the angry and lift the lowly all at once, such is “the magic one feels when seeing Mark perform his poetry live”.
If a good poem is food for thought, Mark’s plates, delivered fresh as though he is just streaming consciousness, are a degustation where every morsel leaves you wanting more.
Leigh is sure she could be a comedian – she loves making people laugh. Yet she just can’t seem to write a happy song. People have asked, and she has tried! Yet her songs see her described as a “female piano-playing Bob Dylan”. Songs that call for tissues more than dancing shoes.
Could this quirky collaboration bring the breakthrough?
Can Mark, the crafter of words, help shape her niche?
This awkward premise sets up a cathartic and colourful session of songs and poems that flows like a feel-good night in with your cute ADHD cousin and your mellow favourite uncle.
Backed by Leigh’s simple but soulful piano – except when a ukulele appears – their voices fill the space in unexpected ways as they share their hearts like gems they have collected, lost in the couch and found again, over two lifetimes of getting by with help from friends.
World Premiere!
One Night Only!
General admission
Duration: 50mins
Warnings: audience interaction
