In Cynical Ballads Luke Wright leads us through the run down shopping precincts and airless television studios of Modern Britain, introducing us to a cast of tone-deaf pop wannabes, terrorized single mums and baby-boomers with “afflu-AIDS.” The back drop may be British but the themes are universal: greed, betrayal, manipulation and, lingering shyly at the back – love.

Between each poem Luke offers a pithy crash course in the history of balladry, from campfires to broadsides to music halls and then sadly, Christina Aguliera. A stunning projected backdrop accompanies each poem featuring the caustic, Steadman-like illustration of Sam Ratcliffe.

29 year old Luke Wright has been called “the best young performance poet around” (The Observer) and “performance poetry’s key revivalist” (London Metro). He writes darkly comic social satires and romping ballads about politics, the media and everyday folk like you and me. He is a regular on BBC radio and TV and the author of two ‘verse documentaries’ broadcast to over a million people on Channel 4 at British Prime Time. He programmes Latitude’s Poetry Arena, the largest poetry event in Europe.