Ruth Rosen - 'Blake: Man Without a Mask'

Our Events Manager, James Orton, sums up a wonderful event with Ruth Rosen. Image above courtesy of Merlin Porter (@MerlinPorterArt), who kindly illustrated the event live!

Tuesday evening saw Ruth Rosen's "Blake: Man without a Mask", the third event in the Inspired by Blake calendar. Ruth has an extraordinary performance piece that centres around her reading a selection from every single piece of William Blake's works, seamlessly, and with a passion that ends as strongly as it begins. There are no props or interludes, just a solid hour of carefully chosen wonderful words.

Looking around the audience gave a real sense of what each person took away with them. There were people with eyes closed, as if being lulled gently to sleep by Ruth's mellifluous voice. This doesn't mean that these people weren't focused on the words that Ruth delivered, a fact proven by the applause and complimentary comments given when the audience dispersed. Some were literally leaning forward on the edge of their seats, only relaxing when the final verse of 'Jerusalem' was delivered.

It was a passionate, moving selection of passages that gave us a small insight into how deeply Blake's writing can be felt. It was an absolute delight and pleasure to be part of the experience.