Anthology is a great initiative for poetry exposure directed by Helen Charman and Quentin Beroud at the ADC bar, decorated with famous poems on walls and colorful lollipops on tables. The event consisted of actors' performances of both their and the audience’s dearest poems, and this proved well devised. Its poster portrayed a goat with a piece of paper quoting famous lines cleverly referring to the meaning of the word anthology, the dictionary entry of which: Greek: gathering of flowers was quoted at the back of the program. The compering of Jack Gamble was effective, making the transition between poems smooth and lively.

The themes and tone of poems were varied but cohesive, from Early Modern English to an Italian poem submitted by the audience. From comic poems and caricatured performance, full of sexual innuendos and irony, to the self-deprecating and more serious pressing issues of love, war, immigration, homosexuality, and apathy, the range of themes touched upon was impressive. The actors and the audience made a great variety of choices in terms of both form and historical period, from rhyming couplets through Romanticism, to modernist poetry both English and American.

It was well expected to hear poems from the English literary canon such as Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', Shakespeare's 'sonnet 138', Ted Hughes' 'Lovesong', and Wordsworth's 'A Slumber did My Spirit Seal'. Indeed, whilst very famous, some of them were rendered innovatively, although others perhaps too theatrically for my taste. I enjoyed Frank O'Hara's 'Having a Coke with You', and how Freddy Sawyer made it sound contained and conversational. Poppy Damon's peculiar and slightly comic interpretation of Allen Ginsberg's' A Supermarket in California', an audience submission, caught me by surprise but it seemed to work. Highlighting the comic performance, Oliver Marsh read Wendy Cope, while Yaseen Kader played effectively with E.E. Cummings's 'since feeling is first'. In the same spirit, but rather farcical, Edward Eustace punctuated Hillaire Belloc's lines from 'Matilda' with his posture and powerful voice.

I was happy to discover new poems like 'He Sits Down on the Floor of the School for the Retarded' read beautifully by Lanikai Krishnadasan Torrens, and the mellow and comfortable reading of 'I am Asking You to Come Back Home', by Zoe Higgins. I also enjoyed Victoria Fell's skilful performance of 'Channel 4', a biting piece by Luke Wright. The audience's poetry choice contributed to the variety of the night with Carol Ann Duffy's 'Mrs Schofield's GCSE' and Margaret Atwood's 'You Fit Into Me'. They also brought us back to literary craftsmen such as Ben Johnson and Lewis Carol, but I did expect explicit and creative performance instructions from audience members, which would have nicely added to the interactive element.. Finally, I say "success" and can't wait to see Anthology develop, but for that we need you, dear audience.