William Blake: Letters from Paradise

As British national treasures go, William Blake, famously eccentric painter, poet, and visionary, is often hard to fathom. Some of his epic poetry he claimed to write by dictation from above – ‘I am under the direction of Messengers from Heaven, Daily and Nightly’. But much of Blake’s other written work was carefully and painstakingly crafted. Most of what he had to say resonates sharply to this day, yet so little of his sublime poetry, prose and humour is known to the public, and is rarely heard on stage. William Blake: Letters From Paradise, a newly devised one-man show, is going to change all that. Actor and Blake devotee Kenneth Jay (Clarence in our production of “It’s a Wonderful Life” uncovers the astonishing razor-sharp theatricality of Blake the wordsmith, a charming and fiery dissenter with a powerful voice that soars across the centuries from a world uncannily close to our own, to scoff and to celebrate, to lament and rejoice. To admonish and encourage with passion, elegance and good humour, our ascent in this modern world.