MC Lady Lazarus vs DJ Thought Fox is a thirty-five minute exploration of the poetry of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, interpreted through the lens of two contemporary poets, Eleanor Jackson and Thomas Day.
Combining music, visuals and commentary ranging from the deeply personal, articulately obscure and the lovingly plagiarized the show is as much an experiment in how to read a poem as a pie-eyed, whistle-stop biography of two great poets. The work remixes archival audio and interviews of Hughes and Plath to consider questions of biography, poetry and idolatry.
Thought Fox and Lazarus are captivating on the stage, their interaction crackling with energy. It’s the perfect poetry hair-of-the-dog to get the day kickstarted… intensely dark and joyous and I would kill to watch it all over again.
… is a rich, engaging, layered work. Plath’s and Hughes’ voices weave through Jackson’s sensual and Thomas’ eloquent poetics. Numerous lines stick out, and I jot many of them down (mostly illegible, in the dark): “Kiss me, and you’ll know how important I am.”
Title: DJ Thought Fox vs MC Lady Lazarus
Co-authors: Thomas Day and Eleanor Jackson
Duration: 35 Mins
Details: Two-person poetry dialogue featuring audio and visual remix and response to the works of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath
Premiered: Queensland Poetry Festival 2012
Featured: Brisbane Fringe Festival 2012, Art, Not Apart 2013, Tasmanian Poetry Festival 2013
eleanor j jackson 