Our Lives – Ben Okri and Charlotte Jarvis, The Coronet Theatre

The Nigerian author Ben Okri is a giant of contemporary African literature. His literary awards are far too numerous to list, and include the 1981 Booker Prize for perhaps his best known novel, The Famished Road.

Okri is no stranger to The Coronet Theatre, which in 2018 staged his adaptation of Camus’ landmark novel, L’Étranger, The Outsider; and, in fact, he can often be spotted in the audience at the venue.

Charlotte Jarvis is an Edinburgh-based choreographer and dance artist, who had already used a poem by Ben Okri as the setting for her Ballet of the Unseen, a couple of years ago.

Our Lives: An Infinite Improvisation Poetry Dancing is a more intimate collaboration between poet and dancer, which premiered at last year’s Edinburgh Festival, Dance Base, and now comes to The Coronet Theatre as part of its eclectic spring programme.

Our Lives is billed as a dance-drama about life as constant improvisation. Poetry, particularly as spoken, is its own kind of music, and as such is an ideal companion to dance. Ben Okri’s deep, melodious voice is a perfect vehicle for his own words.

In the same way that movement responds to the cadences of spoken poetry, so poetry responds to movement.

In Our Lives the interdependence between the two forms leads the artists to explore what they describe as the mystery of life, touching on history, injustice, the passions of motherhood and, finally, hope.

Our Lives: An Infinite Improvisation Poetry Dancing is performed in the intimate surroundings of The Coronet Theatre Studio.

Age Guidance: 12+